RAPIDHAMMER

West Ham United v Bolton 1-2

Just another Bolton success over West Ham! The Hammers have been unable to win against this team since the days of Carlos Tévez! And the Hammerettes were the only persons on the pitch that could make the Hammers fans smile this afternoon …

The Hammers had their chances, but looked nervous from the beginning. When West Ham seemed to mount the pressure on Bolton, Kevin Davies nodded the visitors ahead when he was able to get away from James Tomkins and score from Lee Chung-Yong’s cross.

Diamanti narrowly missed with his first of some dangerous free kicks but the Hammers were punished again! It was another James Tomkins’ error that gifted Bolton their second goal: the young defender tried to shepherd the ball out of play but allowed Davies to cross in to help set up Jack Wilshere’s volleyed finish. It was the sillyest goal I had seen for a long time, and Bolton was 2-0 up after not more than 16 minutes.

A Diamanti free-kick again, but all shots were saved by the Bolton keeper and later in the first half Carlton Cole missed a glorious opportunity to put the Hammers back into it before the break.

The Hammers fans who had been able to buy a six-game-mini-season ticket ahead of this game had sung “We’ll win three – two” throughout the first half, but many of them left early when the Hammers seemed to be unable to break the Bolton defence.

Kieron Dyer and later Mido came on after the break, and Bolton was reduced to ten men when Cohen was redcarded troughout the 2nd half after his 2nd yellow for tripping Scott Parker. But the Hammers couldn’t even take advantage of this fact and it was too late for West Ham when Alessandro Diamanti (pictured above with Bolton’s left back Paul Robinson Cohen) scored a great goal in the 88th minute, though Junior Stanislas hit the bar for the Hammers in injury time, only seconds after Davies also had hit the bar for Bolton. It was a frantic finish, but the hosts weren’t able to score and make it 2-2 what would have been only a consolation, because this game always was destined for being a “six-pointer”!

Owen Coyle will be greatful for West Ham’s bad defending in the first half as the Hammers handed “Judas” (as the former Burnley boss was called when he left for Bolton in January) his first success on the road in the top flight. I hate Bolton!

Some kind of a “live ticker!-> twitter.com/rapidhammer

West Ham

• 01 Green
• 15 Upson
• 18 Spector
• 30 Tomkins
• 08 Parker
• 14 Kovacyellow card (Stanislas 75)
• 20 Faubert (Dyer 47)
• 21 Behrami
• 10 Franco (Mido 67)
• 12 Cole
• 32 Alessandro Diamanti

Bolton

• 22 Jaaskelainenyellow card
• 04 Robinsonyellow card
• 12 Knight
• 15 Steinsson
• 18 Ricketts
• 06 Muambayellow card
• 21 Cohenyellow card, red card
• 27 Lee
• 32 Wilshereyellow card (Taylor 78)
• 09 Elmander (Gardner 74)
• 14 Davies

Goals:

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