It was certainly a memorable away day for myself, putting five past a poor Blackburn outfit, with Dimitri Payet stealing the show once more.
Greeted by high winds and the smell of Burgers, there was a real sense of optimism amongst the fans outside the ground, not only to win, but to progress to the quarter-final of the FA Cup.
Let’s talk you through the game. A quiet, rather sloppy start, which we have come to expect as of recent weeks cost us the lead 20 minutes into the game, courtesy of a Marshall strike into the bottom right hand corner.
It seems to be a reoccurring theme where we have to come from behind due to a sloppy start, but I must say Slaven got the last 70 minutes spot on.
Victor Moses was given far too much space and they allowed him to walk through their defence and drill home a very good equaliser six minutes after conceding.
The travelling fans were excellent and the goal seemed to ease most people’s nervous and a roar of Bubbles emerged from the 7,200 Hammers in the Darwen Stand.
We were rewarded for our excellent vocals 10 minutes later with another masterpiece from the main man, putting a 25-yard free-kick in and Payet was proving to all the doubters once more what he can do.
“We’ve got Payet” was as loud as I have ever heard it, but I will wait until the end of the game to make that conclusion.
A slow but eased start to the second half and there wasn’t much to get excited about, until Taylor took down Moses on the counter attack for his second yellow card.
“Cheerio, cheerio cheeriooooo” emerged and spirits were high with a quarter final looking like a real prospect.
We were able to take advantage of the extra man and in the 64th minute, Emenike tapped home his first goal for the Hammers and it gave him a spark of life, making it 1-3 and all but game over.
Another red card was shown with 15 minutes left on the clock, with Kouyate having been judged to have brought down a blue and white shirt, and the ref felt it was worthy of an instant dismissal.
I must admit it looked like a sending off from the other side of the ground, but according to others it wasn’t and Bilic has come out and said that it will be appealed.
As soon as we went down to 10, we looked more expansive in our play and started to play some great football.
Emenike grabbed his second of the game with an excellently taken finish, taking it round the keeper with a few step overs and wrapping up the game for us.
Now, back to my earlier point, Dimitri Payet capped his excellent performance off with an astonishing solo goal.
He turned his man with ease on the half way line, ran the best part of 30 yards before using his magical feet to work a way past three defenders and smashed home his second of the day.
That was the loudest I have heard the “We’ve got Payet” chant by far.
This year is an excellent chance for us to actually go on and win this cup, with our quarter final either away to Shrewsbury or Manchester United.
Yesterday really sent out a message that we should be taken seriously, and being one win from a day out in Wembley, I must say I am very excited looking into our future.
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