WOLVERHAMPTON 0, WEST HAM 2
Hammers Plant seeds of distress
ROBERT PLANT is the new vice-president of Wolves. But he was left facing a Stairway to Hell in the Stan Cullis stand as West Ham took the mike.
Molineux was packed to the rafters. The punters looked bang up for it, gold and black balloons headed skyward and the noise was Led Zep deafening.
Wolves even paraded last season's Championship trophy.
Then all those carefully laid plans were blown apart by a dash of breathtaking Premier League class.
Led Zeppelin frontman Plant can't have been too impressed as Kieron Dyer and Mark Noble, the game's outstanding player, cut Mick McCarthy's side to ribbons.
In fact, the Black Country side might have been half useful if they had a decent frontman.
Make no mistake, Wolves have their work cut out to avoid being the League's latest whipping boys.
Boss McCarthy has been here twice before with Sunderland, and twice they went down like Led balloons. Only time will tell if he has learned from his mistakes.
His team started well enough and pinned the Hammers back into their own penalty area.
But they could do little when Noble stepped forward in the 22nd minute and produced an opening goal of supreme quality.
Matthew Upson's long pass was killed by Carlton Cole and the former Chelsea trainee played the ball into the feet of England Under-21 star Noble.
The Wolves defence stood off and Noble curled home.
In fairness to the home fans they generously applauded, almost drowning out 3,000 away fans.
Hammers No 1 Rob Green then made fine blocks from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Nenad Milijas.
But Noble's range of passing was just too much for Wolves.
And he laid on the second goal as his corner found the unmarked figure of Upson, who easily guided a header into the bottom corner on 69 minutes.
Boss Gianfranco Zola is trying to grow his squad organically by using his own coaching skills, and the expertise of Steve Clarke.
And right now, if any club looks attractive to a potential investor it's West Ham and that's largely down to the work of those two men.
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This article has 7 comments
Great start to the new season and a solid performance. Wolves were worthy contenders but the hammers quality shone in the end. The rumours about the club are not true, the only sales that will take place are the ones that Zola himself sanctions, Zola will NOT be forced to sell anyone he doesnt want or need to as the current owners, albeit temporary, need the club to rise in value to their valuation beofre selling, which cannot be achieved by selling the quality. The hammers are looking really stable as a side under Zola and Clarke,the club can achieve great things under these two, lets hope they stay for the long term, a great team for a great team. LOL COYI
By Simon.. Posted August 17 2009 at 8:49 AM.
Will remain Wolves supporter all my life even if we lose all games. Compliments to hammers, done fantastic job. Greetings from sunny Malta
By Chris Zarb Malta... Posted August 16 2009 at 10:33 PM.
Good performance, excellent result against a spirited and enthusiastic Wolves side.
On another note both CEO's of WHUFC and CB Holdings have within the past week released press statements that the club do NOT have to offload players, however if Zola wishes to release players to raise funds for further aquisitions that will be his judgemet call. IMO if we do accept a bid for one of our many centre halves, or midfielders Quashie and Davenport should be the ones I prefer to be exiting, with those funds raised a couple of high priced loan better quality strikers could be financed.
The bottom line is we love our club no matter who is the owner or coach. Our biggest strength is our fantastic Academy, even if it really does go tits up, we will coe back even stronger, always have, always will. Afterall we are West Ham United!
By DJ Hammer.. Posted August 16 2009 at 1:19 PM.
The team is looking good.Lots of talent ,good attacking football.Lets pray we can keep our key players and build on our youth talent.Keep your chin up wolves they looked goog too i thought.good battleling side had there scoring chances. ZOLA DONT GO ,AT LEAST FOR THE NEXT DECADE OR SO.
By jose martinez.. Posted August 16 2009 at 11:24 AM.
Great result for the boys today,always going to be hard against the wolves,but the lads and greeno played well.Good luck to Wolves for the rest of the season.The premier league is where a club like Wolves should be.
By gaz'ammer.. Posted August 16 2009 at 9:52 AM.
zola+clarke are doing a great job at upton park,
i hope that the icelandic polar bears dont mess it all up with them wanting to sell the best players.
ps, sign gudjohnsson now,today,this morning,thanks
By Richard Mack.. Posted August 16 2009 at 9:41 AM.
Fair comments happy with the result,just hope the hammers can keep the track on the prem league & not on the problems of tabliod comments & rumours that always ruin our season! My thanks & great times for Mr Zola & Mr Clarke & of course the players.C`mon u HAMMERS.
By richard davies.. Posted August 16 2009 at 9:34 AM.