A last gasp goal from Lee Bowyer secured a much-deserved away win for Ipswich against his former club on Tuesday night.
In a game devoid of any real quality, Bowyer popped up to fire home an 88th minute winner through a crowded box.
Even though the corner that led to Bowyer’s winner seemed to come from a push on Joey O’Brien, it did not mean West Ham were hard done by. Ipswich fully deserved the win, and could have taken the lead in the first three minutes.
The Tractor Boys took a large and boisterous away support to Upton Park and they witnessed their team make and impressive start as Michael Chopra forced a fantastic early save from Robert Green.
West Ham failed to stamp any authority on the game, or even string more than three passes together at times.
Despite many injury problems throughout his career, Jimmy Bullard found plenty of time and space to pick up a lot of second balls and pull the strings from the centre of midfield with some intelligent passes.
Former Hammer Bowyer characteristically hurried and scurried around like a terrier, giving the hapless Nolan and Noble little time on the ball.
Bowyer could have even scored in the first half with a chip that beat Green to strike the upright, it would have been no less then Ipswich deserved as they dominated the opening 45 minutes.
In an unusually warm September night in East London, the West Ham crowd seemed fairly subdued, given their recent eight game unbeaten run.
The second half was a more even affair with few out-and-out chances created by either side.
Carlton Cole forced an easy save from the Ipswich goalkeeper David Stockdale with a pedestrian shot, but was mainly anonymous for most of the game as the West Ham midfield failed to give any service to the front-men.
Perhaps this stemmed from some confusion over who the actual strikers were. Sam Baldock made his debut in what initially looked like a 4-4-2 formation, although as the first half progressed he seemed to be playing on the right of a 4-3-3.
This meant he was rarely able to test the Ipswich defence with his often lauded pace and as he played so high up the pitch, right-back O’Brien was constantly exposed.
The only West Ham players to emerge with any credit were Green, and centre-backs Abdoulaye Faye and James Tomkins as they constantly mopped up the errors of the midfield.
John Carew came on for Cole in the last 20 minutes and showed some good touches with a neat turn and lay-off that nearly led to a goal.
Maybe it was the heat, maybe they thought Ipswich would just roll-over and West Ham would only need to turn up in order to win.
Whatever the reason for the lethargy of West Ham’s play, it’s something Sam Allardyce will need to address to avoid dropping any more vital points at home.
As for Ipswich, they were fully worth the win and given their performance, would have been disappointed to come away anything less than three points.
Paul Jewell has assembled a tidy looking side, mainly from free-transfers and loans. If they continue to play with similar pace and fluidity they could easily be rewarded with a play-off place come May.
