AskFans Away Days – West Ham

We tasked our resident West Ham fan Lukey Malden with travelling up north to West Bromwich along with his claret and blue buddies and record the experience.

No doubt Lukey and his mates were hoping for better things from Slaven Bilic's men, who'd opened the 2016-17 EPL season with three straight defeats.

To be fair, the 'ammers have been forced to open this season with three straight away games as their new home ground – London Stadium – had not been 'fit-for-purpose' for football fans following its use for the World Athletics Championships.

Three trips to Old Trafford, St Mary's Stadium and St James' Park resulted in zero points for West Ham, although things were looking up after they'd beaten Huddersfield 2-0 in their delayed 2017-18 London Stadium opener.

Last season's trip to The Hawthorns had not been one to remember for Lukey and his fellow bubble blowers, as The Baggies had been 3-0 up half time and finished the game 4-2 winners.

This time most West Ham fans seemed to be in a positive frame of mind, though, predicting an easy-ish win and three points. The lone West Brom fan who was interviewed seemed just as confident, though, predicting a 3-0 win for Tony Pulis and his boys.





Much lager, hours of chanting, a surprise guest appearance from 'Fat' Frank Lampard and a dour half of tedium later and West Ham's support seemed to have lost their confidence in a positive result, even though it was honours even at half time with no goals scored.

The 'ammers fans were now of the opinion that a draw would be a decent result ...

… which is exactly what they got as neither team seemed to possess the creative spark necessary to actually stick the ball in the onion bag. The referee blew the whistle for time without troubling his notebook in order to note down that a goal had been scored.

A slightly subdued atmosphere on the fans' return journey was in stark contrast to the enthusiasm shown on the trip up. Most fans bemoaned West Ham's lack of a creative spark, and the paucity of service to new £16million man Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez.

Hopefully, Lukey and the boys will have re-discovered their footballing enthusiasm in time for West Ham's next away day, a trip up to Burnley's Turf Moor for the battle of the claret and blues.

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