Fatherly Love: West Ham 1 - 0 Barnsley; 17 December

Last week my wife had an old VHS tape converted to DVD.  Like many people, we had spent time intermittently over a long period videoing family gatherings as my son Jack was growing up.  By the nature of my jobs, I had access to a video camera and Christmases, Easters, Birthdays and other occasions were taped until they weren't.  We watched Jack go from two to ten, while Joel went from seven to teenage fifteen, Becky from ten to leaving school eighteen and Jessica from a humpy thirteen year old to an adult.  We also saw The Controller's father (the only person I've ever known her to be afraid of) and my father, both of whom are now dead, and, of course, as these things are, viewing it was joy and sadness mixed.  As well as a reminder of the way we were.  Towards the end of the tape, there's a section at West Ham of the gates to Upton Park after the death of Bobby Moore, with my dad, Joel and Jack.  The first game Jack ever saw was the home game against Wolves the Saturday after Booby Moore died which was extremely emotional (and, of course, was his misleading reference point for what it was like to see live games.  He must have thought all games began with a wreath laying ceremony in the centre of the pitch!)

Whenever I see my children, I'm immensely proud of them and their achievements.  Even more, I like the people they've become (and believe me, for some of them - they know who they are - that was definitely not a foregone conclusion) and I enjoy spending time in their company.  For some of them, that is often at Upton Park, as it was on Saturday as West Ham looked to stop a third wheel falling off after losing at home to Burnley after leading 1-0 and away to Reading, having two players sent off in the process.  If our manager had been 'Appy 'Arry we'd have heard the 'bare bones' cliché trotted out as with two players suspended and six players injured, Abdouleye Faye got injured in the warm up and was also unavailable.

It didn't look promising with Faubert the faux-fullback, McCartney moved to central defence and a 17 year old making his first appearance ever at fullback just after signing his first professional contract.  We were also pressed into playing Carew, Cole and Piquionne who are usually used to replace each other.

And we didn't look very secure for much of the game, but Papa Bouba Diop was immense (as he is physically) in midfield - and how the sponsors made Kevin Nolan man of the match rather than him when he even scored as goal for the first time in years I cannot fathom - and the debutant fullback played good.

He is one Danny Potts, son of the West Ham legend Steve Potts (denied his 400th league appearance by the ratfaced Roeder).  More to the point, he recovered from leukaemia two years ago to do well enough as youth player to get his professional contract and yesterday to make his début.  He played really well, and I bet his dad is as proud of him as I am of my kids. 

Lost November?

My last post was 29 October. While in no way would I accept allegations of superstition, it's much harder to hold forth when things are going well.  Except, of course, to exult, gloat, celebrate, revel or rejoice with unseemly glee.  With the almost inevitable, karmic consequences of the laws of hubris.  So from the dull point at home to Bristol City, through the away victories at Hull and Coventry (oh, how those cities are redolent of the championship doldrums!), to the comfortable dispatch of Derby and the gritty away conquest of Middlesbrough, I was moored in silence.

But the (this season at least) atypical, careless loss at home to Burnley, has set my bile free.

I see that BFS has said it was 'one of those days'.  Well, I hope it was not one of those days, as I think we should have no more of them.  While BFS saw a team that dominated and was unlucky to lose, I saw a team complacent that it would win.  Of course, that was fuelled by a first half of easy superiority that did not translate into goals.  

And, by the way, why does a misplaced pass from Carlton Goal get greeted with groans, while missing an open goal by Kevin Nolan gets him applauded all around the ground for the way he lay prone in theatrical despair having missed said barn door?  Julien Faubert should take lessons from him - his sponsor's man of the match award for the last home game led to a catalogue of errors in this.

Of course, I tried to console myself with the thought that it was the third game in a week and tiredness was inevitable, and that we have a cushion on the third placed team, and that with Southampton losing we hadn't lost any ground.  But tiredness didn't seem to affect Burnley in the same way, the seat is more comfortable with a cushion that we now don't have, and although we didn't lose any ground, we lost the chance to give a full-throated rendition of 'We are top of the league (say, we are top of the league)', which, let's face it, we don't get very often.

So, reasons not to like Burnley bursting our bubble:

1.   Alastair Campbell.  Enough said.

2.   Connor was absent for his own birthday party.  Why? It's not his birthday until Wednesday and he could have had a party on Sunday.

3.   Jessica was absent for Connor's birthday party.  As well as the other whys above, why not leave the party duties to her Man U supporting partner?

4.   Uriel came on Jessica's ticket.  So Connor and Jessica cannot miss any more games (which will be difficult for almost-seven-years-old Connor for evening games) and Uriel can't come again because he puts the bock on it.

5.   There should be no doubt as to who is the premier claret and blue team.  Not Villa, not Scunthorpe and definitely not Burnley.
 So now on to Reading and Barnsley.  The pulse races. So let's hope there's a bit more determination next time.