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What Happened?

After a dominant first-half display that gave us all the belief that we were going to go on and win the game handsomely, Jussi Jaaskelainen gave away a penalty after fumbling the ball and then James Collins gave away a pointless free-kick, all while we offered absolutely nothing in attack during the second-half.

Ravel Morrison opened the scoring just after the half-hour mark after Kevin Nolan did well to keep the ball in play and lay-off for the midfielder to tap home from close range.

And the goal was nothing more than deserved after we went close on a number of occasions before hand, with Guy Demel going close with a header hit the bar and Stewart Downing shooting over from distance.

But Jussi’s blunder ten minutes in to the second-half, which led to him giving away the penalty that Gary Hooper converted, seemed to disrupt our momentum and heads dropped.

Robert Snodgrass then curled in a free-kick with just under 20 minutes remaining after Collins needlesly barged over Johan Elmander, with Leroy Fer rounding off Norwich’s victory with an 18-yard finish that proved to be the last kick of the game.

West Ham went missing in the second-half and failed to repeat the dominance over the hosts from the first-half. Allardyce pointed at Jussi’s blunder as the reason we went on to lose after looking almost certain to take home all three points, but the reality is that we just switched off after the break and allowed Norwich a way back in to the game.

Why?

A rare blunder from Jaaskelainen triggered Norwich’s come-back, but you can’t put all the blame on to the keeper because not a single West Ham player put a shift in after the break.

The first-half saw us playing attractive passing football and we deserved to take the lead through Morrison, so there really is no excuse for the second-half capitulation.

Our lack of strike options showed again, but we were still doing enough to win the game. Only the players know why they didn’t see it out because it’s a complete mystery to the rest of us.

Did we deserve it?

Yes. It’s very well dominating a game for 45 minutes, but if you can’t keep up that level of performance a full game you’re going to get punished, especially in the Premier League.

Norwich wanted it more in the second-half and we allowed them a way back in with two sloppy mistakes for both the penalty and the free-kick.

We should have been out of sight by half-time, but failure to convert chances in to goals came back to haunt us for the umpteenth time this season. If we continue doing things like that then it’s going to be a long, long season down the bottom – although there’s enough about us to ensure that doesn’t happen. Hopefully.

Who stood out for the Hammers?

There were some good performances all around in the first-half, with Morrison, Mark Noble, Downing and Razvat Rat all impressing.

But that’s all we can really say as the players just didn’t look interested in the second-half.

Who’s next?

After another international break we welcome Chelsea to the Boleyn Ground on November 24. They’ve been stuttering under Jose Mourinho so far this season and a repeat of last season’s famous 3-1 victory can’t be ruled out, but we’re going to have to improve hugely from the loss to Norwich in order to make it happen.

The game was pencilled in for Andy Carroll’s return from injury, but recent news of a setback in his recovery means that we’ll probably have to wait a little longer to see the big man back in action. I

It’s a game that we need to take something from now that we’ve slipped closer to the relegation zone, but it’ll all come down to whether Chelsea turn up on the day and the Hammers players not involved with their countries over the international break having some extra finishing practice at Chadwell Heath.

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