West Ham 4-1 Ipswich Town: Terry Hunt on the Blues

There’s no doubt we shot ourselves in the foot at West Ham. Life at this level is difficult enough without giving the opposition “buffet goals,” as I saw them described. Help yourself, in other words.

It was a bit like a horror repeat of our performance at Man City, when we handed the perennial champions goals neatly served on a plate.

Going into an international break, it was a short, sharp reality check. Expectation levels among fans had been raised by the excellent performance against Villa. West Ham had been struggling at home. Many expected our first win...

Town were their own worst enemies at West Ham (Image: Ross Halls) As Kieran McKenna said, we gave away poor goals at bad times. It could have been very different. If Jacob Greaves’s header had gone in to put us ahead, instead of just wide, who knows how things would have turned out?

Having watched their team lose their first three home games, the Hammers supporters would have been shocked to go behind. That tension could have spread on to the pitch.

Equally, if Liam Delap’s header had gone in, instead of being brilliantly saved. But ifs, buts and maybes don’t win Premier League points.

When I say the most important thing is how “we” respond to a really bad day at the office, “we” refers to everybody - players, management, and us, the supporters.

Some of the comments after the game were, frankly, utterly ridiculous. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but the personal abuse of some Town players on social media was totally unnecessary. How do people think it helps?

Anyone would think that, in less than a week, we had gone from all-conquering to absolute no-hopers. Neither is true, of course.

Like our brilliant manager, let’s keep it in perspective. Don’t get carried away when things are going well, don’t rant and rave when bad days come along.

Ben Johnson will know he had a bad game - so personal abuse doesn't help! (Image: Ross Halls) The players don’t need us to tell them. Ben Johnson will know he had a poor day on his return to West Ham. It doesn’t make him a bad player, and it certainly doesn’t warrant personal abuse.

I’ll tell you what I’m concerned about. It’s this. We seem to adjust our performance levels to the quality of the opposition. We’ve played well and picked up points against really good teams like Brighton and Villa, but have disappointed against Southampton and now West Ham.

Against the Saints and the Hammers, expectations were high and we failed to respond. Why was that? Did we feel the pressure? Going forward, with a run of games coming up against lower half opposition, that’s a concern.

Another concern is the mysterious hand injury suffered by the important Axel Tuanzebe. How we missed him on Saturday. He brings cool, calm experience to our back four.

It looks like he’ll be out for a while, and I think we’ll struggle to replace him adequately. Johnson is obviously short on confidence, and is it realistic to throw in Harry Clarke? Maybe Luke Woolfenden could play there? He’s done it before.

Liam Delap continues to impress (Image: Ross Halls) One big positive from Saturday was another excellent goal from Liam Delap. That’s four goals in seven games in a team which doesn’t create many chances. He deserves all the praise that’s coming his way.

So, we arrive at another international break still without a win, but outside the bottom three.

Let’s hope all of our internationals return unscathed ready for a big run of games, starting with Everton at Portman Road.

If we stay above them, we’ll be fine - because there’s a law of the land which decrees that they will never be relegated!