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In the past few weeks we have seen Fat Sam play the now famous “no striker” formation (his plan B) and Sad Roy’s (England manager Roy Hodgson – he always looks so miserable to me!) “Four Striker” team set up. Both worked in certain situations and but both have disadvantages.

For our away game at Tottenham Hotspur, the Fat Sam decided not to play a striker. It could be argued that with the poor displays by Modibo Maiga so far this season, we really have been playing this system all year. So picking a six man midfield formation just helped contain Spurs better. This was a game I was not looking forward to because we were struggling and Spurs were getting their act together after bringing in seven quality new players in exchange for Gareth Bale. I watched the game live on TV and thought we were lucky to be going in at half time level. Spurs had a couple of chances to score but once again Jussi Jaaskelainen saved us.

The second half will go down in West Ham folklore, as we not only managed to score our first away goal of the season, but then scored two additional goals. The cream of the crop being Ravel Morrison’s run from inside his own half before neatly clipping it over their keeper to score probably one of the goals of the season. Our fans sung “Bubbles” loud and gave the team tremendous support, the Spurs fans left early to the now infamous “Is there a fire drill?” song.

Talking of Spurs fans, I can’t see what all the fuss is about, referring to the, as Yids. They call themselves the Yid Army! If you look up Yid on Wikipedia, this is the description that comes up…

“Supporters of the English football club Tottenham Hotspur F.C. adopted the nickname “Yid” (or “Yiddo”) and often identify as “Yid Army”. “Yid” is used as a badge of pride by the supporters of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Such usage is controversial, and in 2013 has been addressed by the UK Society for Black Lawyers (an equality lobby group), as well as the British Prime Minister”.

So it seems that our friends from North London can call themselves Yids but everyone else can’t.

Now West Ham could take the idea that we are “The Irons” but we would like other people not to call us /refer to us as ” irons”, as it offends gays (iron hoofs – cockney rhyming slang for poofs). Political correctness gone really wrong!

Fat Sam tried to play the same team pattern against Manchester City but got found out. Maybe because they had seen us use it against Spurs, maybe their manager is smarter or maybe they just have a better team. It never worked. Did the International break come at the wrong time for us? Who knows what system we will play next, or what we will play when Andy Carroll returns.

I’m a proud Cockney and a West Ham fan. Like most of us I like to see England do well. When people here in America ask me if I’m British? I tell them I’m English. I let them know I’m not Scottish, Irish or Welsh (thank Christ), so seeing England manage to qualify for the World Cup filled me with pride.

What I liked about the England team was that Sad Roy had to win both games. And going into the last game with Poland – a draw was not good enough – he decided to go with four strikers. It worked and England are off to Brazil next year.

Playing four strikers against the best in the world probably won’t work as most games are controlled by superior midfields, creating chances for their forward. But I can’t see England going with a ‘no striker” line up either!