ianclark

4th August 2004 (yes I know this is out of order, please bear with me while I get permission to edit/delete posts - a surprise that I can't just do that to my own thread).

West Ham v Bayern Munich

Team Selection - unchanged

West Ham 1 (0) Bayern Munich 2 (1)

Harewood 86

Substitutions - Bywater for Walker (45), Sheringham for Zamora (45), Powell for Cohen (45).

A spirited performance from the team against one of the giants of European Football (with a strong XI playing).

So that's it for pre-season, PL5 W2 D2 L1, not a bad effort, particularly with such a threadbare squad. I'm really looking forward to the new season with a renewed feeling of optimism. First game is against Leicester City on the 10th August 2004.

bartley_m

nice start

ianclark

Thanks

ianclark

7th August 2004

Leicester v West Ham

This is it, the beginning of a new era for West Ham United Football Club.

Team Selection (4-4-2)

GK - Bywater
RB - Mullins
CB - Ferdinand
CB - Dailly
LB - Powell
RM - Reo-Coker
CM - Noble
CM - Fletcher
LM - Chadwick
CF - Sheringham (c)
CF - Harewood

Subs - Walker, McClenahan, Cohen, Hutchison, Zamora

Leicester 2 (2) West Ham 0 (0)

Substitutions - Zamora for Noble (74)

Attendance - 32,476

The first (but probably not last) bitter taste of football management at Upton Park. Despite being against 10 men for 84 minutes (after Tiatto was sent off early), my team produced a terrible performance and never looked like getting a draw, let alone a win.

Physio John Green has also told me that Mark Noble has a groin strain and will be out for 2 weeks.

ianclark

9th August 2004

Leyton Orient want to take Trent McClenahan, Kyle Reid and Graeme Carrick on loan. I've said no to McClenahan but the others can go for 3 months.

ianclark

10th August 2004

Don Hutchison is out for a week with a twisted knee.

ianclark

10th August 2004

West Ham v Derby County

Team Selection

Rebrov in for Noble on right (Reo-Coker moves into the centre), and Williams replaces Hutchison on the bench.

West Ham 2 (2) Derby County 0 (0)

Rebrov 10, Sheringham 35

Substitutions - Zamora for Harewood (75)

Attendance - 27,501

This is much, much better. Rebrov marked his first appearance with an excellent free kick to open the scoring. Perhaps, he'll be worthing hanging on to providing we can handle his wages. Sheringham completed the scoring in the first half and we coasted for the rest of the match.

P W D L GF GA PTS
2 1 0 1 2 2 3 (12th)

ianclark

Being a complete idiot, I've somehow managed to delete the save game that this story is from, so cannot continue.

I apologise profusely but will soon return with a new game / story (as soon as I decide which team to manage).