Favourite Away Day

I have been on many away days in my years following West Ham from going to Dagenham & Redbridge to Man City and obviously over the river to Millwall. But one game that always sticks out in my mind is Nottingham Forest away at the beginning of last season.

I have chosen this game not only because of the great result that we had but because of the whole day and night out. From the moment we were relegated me and my friends started to plan the away days that we would want to go on in the following season. Obviously the usual games came up like Millwall and Leeds but the one away day we wanted to really do was Forest away. So we were absolutely delighted when the fixtures came out and we saw that it was only a few days into the new season.

We decided we wanted to make the most of this away trip so thought this would be the perfect opportunity for our first away weekend of the season. With the great night life and the apparent 4 to 1, girl to boy ratio up in Nottingham we thought it would be rude not to book up a hotel for the night.

THE JOURNEY/NIGHT OUT

With the game being on the Sunday we had the whole of Saturday to get up there. We arrived in Nottingham around 6ish with the beers already in full flow from the train journey. We had a ten minute walk to the hotel and we bought some more beers and chilled in the hotel for a couple of hours while we got ready.

As one of us had already been up to Nottingham a few years before he knew about Hooters so we booked a table for 9pm well in advance.

Well……… Hooters is a different experience in itself and should have a whole story just for those couple of hours in there. Lets just say the women who work there are just WOW.

We hit Nottingham town centre after Hooters and we went to a few different bars and clubs. The drinks were ridiculously cheap and the ratio’s were completely right with the amount of girls that were out that night. Anyway the night came to an end around 3 in the morning and we slowly made our way back to the hotel for the big game day in the morning. Except for two of my mates. They some how ended up in a pub that had an upstairs bar which was open to all of hours of the night. The strangest part about this is that the bar was just full of black people and they were the only white people in there and they had the times of lives. I can say this now we re-visited this pub for Derby away.

GAME DAY

After an all you can eat buffet breakfast we were out of the hotel and on our way to the City ground. It was a short walk from the hotel to the stadium and none of us were in any fit state to drink a bit of alcohol so we stood outside the ground for a bit and soaked up the atmosphere before entering the ground. Like usual we had filled our end of the ground up and despite it being an early kick off the atmosphere was buzzing especially from us. We started the game well and took the lead after 21 minutes through an own goal from Luke Chambers and we just got better as the game went on. We scored another two goals within the next 15 minutes, one from Kevin Nolan and the other by Carlton Cole. We dominated the majority of the game but Forest got a goal back in the 70^th minute thanks to Robbie Findley. Despite that goal we stayed on top and quickly restored our 3 goal advantage when Winston Reid headed in from a Mark Noble corner. The game finished 4-1 and we continued our reasonable start to the season.

WAY HOME

Our train home wasn’t until 5pm that evening so we had a couple of hours to kill before the journey home. So as we left our bags at the hotel reception we went back there and somehow managed to bring in a Mcdonalds each and a load of cans of beer into the foyer. As the song states ‘Same old West Ham taking the p**s’

The journey home was a lot longer than the way up there. After one messy weekend all we wanted to do was get into our beds and go to sleep before work the next day. This weekend will never be forgotten for the rest of my life.

COYI

Favourite Current West Ham Player

This is an extremely easy decision for me as this player stands out from the rest of our squad in my eyes. He is our current longest serving player, Mark Noble.

I remember in my GCSE english exam I had to write a piece on a role model and I chose Noble. This was over 4 years ago and my opinion still hasn't changed. As a player and a man he stands for everything I believe in. A local lad who plays for the team he supports and gives his all. I can only dream of doing this and that is exactly what I do. Even as a 20 year old, I still lie in my bed and, if I can't sleep, I imagine myself playing for West Ham. Sad? Maybe. But we all have dreams.

One thing that I have always said is that I don't think our midfield would have been able to run with without Noble in it. He always picks up the pieces and can find that killer pass. I feel that he has always been at the heart of the midfield even when our midfield four was himself, Parker, Behrami and Collison. The team just always seems to tick when he is in it and especially when he is playing well.

During the transfer window we obviously signed a number of midfielders including Diame, Diarra, Jarvis and Benayoun and apparently Fulham came in and asked the availability of Mark Noble. The club decided it would be in his best interests for him to know and to find out if he would like to move on. From what I know he said there is no way he would want to leave West Ham and that he would want to fight for his place. I am so glad he did that because along with Nolan and Reid he has been one of our best players so far this season. Since Parker left us for Tottenham he has stepped up to the plate as our main midfielder and I personally feel he has grown into the player into what all hoped he would be. He has never had an England call up and I wonder if he ever will but with some of the players that are being called into the squad I definitely feel he deserves a chance. Don't get me wrong players like Osman and Shelvey are great players but I honestly think that Noble should be casted in the same bracket as them.

Every match he plays for our beloved club you can see it means the world to him and he will always give the best of his ability as I am sure he knows he is living the dreams of every West Ham fan sitting inside Upton Park. When we beat Man Utd in the last game of the season to stay in the Premier League you could just see in his face how much it meant to him and in moments like that you remember and at the same time realise he is one of us and lives with all the ups and downs of our famous club the way we do.

As I said earlier 'our longest serving player' says it all and shows his dedication to the club and not just what West Ham means to him but also what Mark Noble means to West Ham.

Sam Hodges

AFC Hornchurch vs Eastleigh

The link below is for a match report I did for the Romford Recorder website.

http://www.romfordrecorder.co.uk/football/non-league/hornchurch_end_losing_run_1_1697466

There will be an extended version in the Romford Recorder newspaper on Friday 23rd November.

Dagenham & Redbridge News

Dagenham had a great result in the last match away Oxford United, on Tuesday night, finishing the match 3-2 winners. The goals came from Williams, Howell and Wilkinson. This coming Saturday Dagenham are at home to Rotherham who are currently 7^th in the table. Rotherham will be favourites for this game as they are a good 8 places above Dagenham and are also unbeaten in 5. Rotherham draw 1-1 away with Fleetwood Town on Tuesday night and had won their preveious 4 matches before that.

Youth player Tom Davie has extended his loan move at Harlow Town by an extra month. He first moved to Harlow on the 11^th October. He will be joined their by team mate Andrew Burns who has also joined for a month.

Dagenham’s match away at Torquay united has been changed. The original date was the Tuesday 20^th November and the match will now be played on Saturday 1^st December.

Romford News

Romford are unbeaten in their last 4 games in the league and currently sit 6^th in the league on 22 points. Their last outing was nearly 2 weeks ago now and it was a great result as they beat Potters Bar who are two places above them in the table. Romford’s match against Waltham Abbey on Saturday was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch and also this weeks game away at Brentwood Town has also been cancelled. Romford’s next scheduled match is on the 17^th November away at Waltham Forest who are nearer towards the bottom of the table and are placed 16^th. Romford will be hoping that the gap they have had will not scupper their recent good form.