The pub was soon full of Albion fans, Gary C was already in rounds with the Fatty Taxman and at about £1.20 for most pints I think quite a few were downed before we move on to our old Leyton Orient pub the New Globe.
The barman had been away for 18 months in Oz but was amazed when we all showed up. We sat down and watch the boring Tottenham v Arsenal match. According to listee Andy Sl (second team is Tottenham) they won 4-3 as 2 Arsenal goals were offside.
The singing had started by now and at about 2.20 we decided to get the tube to Upton Park.
We joined the other 2,700 Albion fans in the lower tier and once we had found our seats (just to the left of the goal) Harewood hit the post!
Kuipers in his new white and red shirt was once again pivotal to our clean sheet. West Ham had us pegged back and once again Harding was given a roasting and after about 20 minutes of total domination West Ham appeared to suddenly feel the pressure to score whilst on top and stopped playing at times.
Kuipers did give us one scare when he came out to block, forced the West Ham player wide who turned inside him but hit the brick wall of our three central defenders, giving Kuipers time to scramble back.
Harewood and Hutchinson spent the entire game moaning to the Referee as Cullip and Butters blocked all they could give.
Claridge was a revelation. He harried and chased like Virgo, and he still had the deft first touch that Virgo lacks at times. Half time and boy was I glad to hear that whistle.
Second half and we continued to defend deep. Zamora got a fantastic reception from us when he came on and the West Ham faithful sank quietly into there seats and offered no vocal backing to them (well that we could hear anyway).
With about 20 minutes left we broke quickly and won a free kick down by the corner flag (did we have a single corner in the game?). Chippy played the short free kick, I told Liz and Gary what a waste, unless we score, Claridge guides the ball back to Chippy and his cross finds Butters head and the balls in the net.
Hinshelwood starts some bizarre dance but Butters doesn't join in but runs along the front of the Albion fans looking a little pleased with himself.
Very shortly after Virgo and Mullins clash, difficult to see what happened as on the other side of the pitch, but the Referee does take time to consult both linesman and issues the two red cards.
The next 15 minutes and 4 minutes injury time saw West Ham huff and puff and not really look like scoring (it didn't feel like that in the ground though!).
The best chance they had second half was before we scored when Zamora put Harewood through, he pulled a shot wide and the West Ham player coming in from the right couldn't get to the ball.
The final whistle was greeted in the usual way and every player came over to applaud us! The big difference to me in this game was that other than Virgo all the other players were playing in there proper positions and we appeared to know what the game plan was!
After the match we caught the tube to Aldgate East to meet our mate Boon for his 40th birthday in the Pride of Spittalfield. As we walked up Brick Lane The inebriated Fatty Taxman enquired if we were in China town due to the "funny" writing! Close but not that close!
So it was on to the pub and a few more beers, we met our Charlton mates who had just seen them beat Norwich 4-0, then it was curry time. "Chillies" managed to sort out the 14 different orders and the beer was once again soon flowing.
We just about made the 10.17 home, but only because it was 45 minutes late at Victoria.
We dumped into John V who proudly told us that he had managed to keep him and his 12 mates together all day, when I asked him who he meant he turned round and he had lost all 12 of them! Hope you found them John!
As we waited for the platform a few Palace turned up and they looked all sad and dejected as Victoria echoed to "I never felt more like singing the blues when Brighton win and palace lose", rounded off the day perfectly!
Kuipers - 8 great handling and a couple of great saves
Reid - 8 superb match, all over the place
Harding - 4 caught out regularly and his distribution towards the end was very poor
Butters - 8 solid and my MOTM
Cullip - 8 as above
Hinshelwood - 8 as above
Nicolas - 7 harried well
Carpenter - 8 showed why he should always be in the starting XI
Oatway - 7 best game this season IMHO
Virgo - 5 put himself about, stupid tackle to earn a 3 match ban just when we don't need to lose another player
Claridge - 8 still got something about him. Never stopped running
Currie - 7 held the ball up well when he replaced Claridge
Roberts, Mayo, Knight and ? Not used
Mark R