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By: Tom Williams
On the day before New Year's Eve, I received a fax from Cruzeiro informing me that they
had rejected my offer for Sorin. I immediately replied, incereasing my bid to the the ú8m
maximum set by Terence Brown. The streak of 6 league wins in a row won me the Manager of
the Month award for December, and Davor Suker won Player of the Month. The streak
continued at Coventry. Once again, my team found it difficult to score against them but
Melchiot scored his first goal for the club for a 1-0 win. The players came out of the
match completely drained - this was a big worry for me, as I was in a period of fixture
congestion with two league games and an FA cup tie against Barnsley in five days. The
second of those matches was away at Leeds. Leeds had ex-Hammer Frank Lampard suspended,
and we were forced to rest three players due to exhaustion. The match ended in a 0-0 draw.
The next match, an FA cup third round tie at Barnsley, was far more exciting as West Ham,
with all but one of the first-team back, thrashed the Yorkshire side 7-2, with braces for
Di Canio, Cole and man-of-the-match Davor Suker.
The fixture list allowed me a fortnight's break from football so I returned my
attention to the transfer market. My increased bid for Sorin was rejected, so instead I
placed a ú5m bid for Harley, while my scouts went over to Germany to watch Dede. My
approaches for Harley were rejected, so I continued to look around. Although I placed bids
for a number of players, I did not manage to complete any deals in time for my next match,
away to Derby. A Di Canio goal gave me a 1-0 win, leaving me three points off second
place, with a game in hand. My next match was against Birmingham in the first leg of the
League Cup semi-final. Birmingham had already dispatched Coventry and Liverpool in the
competition, so I was not expecting an easy match. Melchiot was cup-tied, so Ian Pearce
came back in at right-back. We put in a poor performance, and Birmingham won a 2-1 lead to
take into the second leg. On the plus side, however, Martin Grainger impressed me so much
that I decided to make a bid of ú2m. Birmingham haggled, asking for ú2.4m - I upped my
bid to ú2.2m and they accepted immediately.
I was expecting a tough match from my FA Cup tie against League leaders, and local
rivals, Chelsea. In the end, it was one of my easiest matches of the season, with former
Blue Melchiot opening the scoring in the sixth minute, and three more goals added by the
end, without reply from Chelsea. I signed Grainger from Birmingham the next day, and he
made his debut in the Premier League match at home to Middlesbrough. With Mark Schwarzer,
man-of-the-match in our last meeting, away with Australia (as was Paul Okon) I was
expecting to score at least one goal. In the end, a 0-0 win was the result, with Mark
Crossley, formerly of Nottingham Forest, proving a capable replacement. In addition,
Marting Grainger picked up his first yellow card of his West Ham career, and his 5th of
the season, ruling him out for one game. But worst of all, Paolo Di Canio, my brilliant
creative forward, strained his groin and was out for approximately a month.
The team that travelled to Old Trafford for my next league encounter was seriously
exhausted and depleted, with Davor Suker not fit to play. I decided to play Severin up
front with Kanoute and Diawara, and bring in Steve Lomas in midfield. This choice paid off
as Severin got a brilliant goal in the 4-3 win over the Red Devils. Severin went
back to central midfield in the next match, with Suker fit to return up front against the
team directly above me in the table, Everton. I made amends for the defeat earlier in the
season, which had started my abysmal run, with a 1-0 win to delight the majority of the
Upton Park crowd, and leapfrog Everton into 2nd place, still just three points off the
lead.
My next match was the seond leg of the League Cup Semi-final. With my two first choice
full-backs cup-tied, and Birmingham leading 2-1 on aggregate, the match was going to be
tough. Luckily, we had scored one away goal so a 1-0 win would get us to the final. Suker
was fouled by Jorge Campos, the Birmingham goal keeper, who surprisingly only received a
yellow card. The penalty was duly converted by Severin. Andy Johnson soon cancelled that
out with a superb strike, and the game remained deadlocked for almost half-an-hour until
Campos brought down another West Ham player, this time Diawara, in the box. Amazingly, he
was not even booked, and instead stayed on the pitch, but to no avail as another Severin
penalty whistled past him into the back of the net. This made the scores level on
aggregate, and we swiftly wrapped the tie up with two goals in the space of five minutes,
from Kanoute and Suker. Kanoute's man-of-the-match performance had exhausted him, so he
was rested for the FA Cup tie at The Hawthorns, and 20-year-old Gavin Holligan made his
first appearance of the season, and only his second ever for the club. He capped a good
performance with his first goal for the club in a 3-1 victory.
Kanoute was back for my next match, a league encounter away to my League Cup Final
opponents, Sunderland. The match boded well for my final chances, as we took a 3-0 lead
within the opening 25 minutes. The scoring was opened by an incredible 45-yard strike from
Suker, followed by goals for Diawara and Kanoute. Matt Jansen grabbed one back for the
Mackems in the second half, but Suker restored the three goal advantage within three
minutes. Severin had a chance to make it 5-1 from the penalty spot in the final minute,
but Thomas Sorensen saved his shot.
My next match was a league game against 7th-placed Arsenal, at Upton Park. Di Canio was
not quite fit, and Joe Cole picked up an injury on the eve on the match that kept him out
for a fortnight. Arsenal also had problems, with Tony Adams, Nkwanko Kanu and Patrick
Vieira all unavailable. Arsenal took the lead before half-time, with Kanoute firing in an
equaliser shortly after the break. We could have won the match but for David Seaman's
impressive form between the sticks. Scott Severin got himself sent off for a shove on
Dennis Bergkamp about ten minutes from time, but we managed to hold on for the draw. That
result took us to the top of the table on goal difference, the first time we had led the
Premiership since the second game of the season. All in all, February was a brilliant
month for us, as we took a clean sweep of the monthly awards - Manager of the month for
me, Young Player of the month for Carrick and Player of the month for Kanoute. My league
encounter away to the other team in claret and blue, Aston Villa, saw Di Canio back in the
team, and West Ham gaining three points with an easy 2-0 victory through Keller and Suker.
My next match was the FA Cup quarter final at home to Man Utd, a tough game but one which
I could certainly win. And win it I did, with a single goal from Marc Keller being enough
to put me through to the semi-finals, thanks largely to another brilliant display from
Shaka Hislop in goal. Unfortunately, with Di Canio just back from injury, Suker strained
ligaments in his knee to once again reduce my forward options. My next league match was
against my closest rivals, Chelsea. Severin was suspended, so Rio Ferdinand moved to
central midfield, as Steve Lomas had picked up an injury in training. Cole, who had
recovered from his injury, returned to midfield, and Javier Margas played in defence in
Ferdinand's place. The scoring was opened by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Chelsea's Dutch
international striker, after half-an-hour's play, but Cole snatched a West Ham equaliser
just before the break. In the second half, West Ham attacked strongly, but were unable to
score a winner as man-of-the-match Ed de Goey made several top-class saves, mainly from
the excellent Kanoute.
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