Results tagged “westham”

The Varsity Boat Race was re-enacted at Loftus Road last night as the plucky underdogs made the early running only for the favourites to put on a surge about a third of the way through which their opponents never seriously threatened to overhaul. Goals for England from captain Ciaran Clark of Aston Villa and Manchester City striker Daniel Sturridge, in the 20th and 30th minutes respectively, quelled early promise from their Italian visitors and established an authority over this friendly fixture that the home side never relinquished.

Fry and Laurie would be working themselves up into a right old state about the opportunities available to the capital's football watchers over the next few days. It's not every day that you can pitch up at the turnstiles of the new Wembley Stadium and buy a ticket to watch the England team in action as its stalwart, David Beckham, makes history, but that could happen later today as FA supremos grapple with the technical and PR side of such a move against the reports that there are around 10,000 seats still available for today's 5:15pm friendly against Slovakia. Indeed, tickets priced at £30 are already available to the general public online and they won't even have to jump through the standard hoop of joining the FA's club, englandfans, to get them. Seats would usually go for almost twice that, but Wembley still has to be paid for and banks of empty red plastic doesn't set the right tone for a team still trying to feel more like the home team than visitors.

Being a Tottenham Hotspur fan has rarely been a passport to an easy ride, but their fans must, more than ever, be wondering what the point of their devotion really is.

In the absence of Londonist United this week (returning soon) here's a shot from the Flickrpool capturing Hammers' fans' jubilation as Mark Noble scored a penalty in West Ham's 3-1 defeat of Fulham, prompting chants of "Who needs Craig Bellamy?" (and other, ruder, things). The win extended their unbeaten league run to 11 matches and moved them two places up the table to eighth place.

Piccie from fitz3xl via the Londonist flickr pool.

January 30th, 2008: Barack Obama was an outsider for the Democratic nomination, Boris Johnson that affable bloke who often presented a popular TV quiz show, and the word "credit crunch" had yet to become a fixture on the dinner party conversation circuit. It was also the last time West Ham managed to keep a clean sheet in the Premier League, as they beat Liverpool 1-0 at the Boleyn Ground.

St.Totteringham's Day is one of those arcane bits of football rivalry that makes the game so enjoyable. It falls every season on the day when it becomes mathematically impossible for Spurs to overtake rivals Arsenal in the Premier League. Despite the Gooner's anaemic draw against Wigan on Sunday, and Tottenham tidily thumping West Ham by four goals, it is now certain that Arsenal will finish higher than their rivals when final positions are settled come May.

Last year Arsenal won everything in sight, a clean sweep of domestic and European trophies. Manager Vic Akers was delighted to secure four triumphs from four competitions. We are, of course, talking about the Ladies team who tonight take on Everton at Leyton Orient's Matchroom Stadium to defend the first of that quartet of titles, in the FA Tesco Women's Premier League Cup Final, kick off 7:35pm. The game is also live on Sky Sports.

The White House hopeful's love for all things claret 'n blue stems from a visit to England five years ago, when his Kent-dwelling extended family introduced him to the passion of the Boleyn Ground faithful, and he's been hooked ever since. If Londonist recalls correctly, in 2003 the Hammers were enduring a less than happy season that culminated in relegation, so good on Barack for supporting a relative underdog.

In part two of our follow up to last year's article on which player's our Premiership clubs should buy we cover Tottenham, West Ham and Fulham. Click here to see yesterday's piece on Chelsea and Arsenal. TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR What was the problem position? Left wing. What did the club do about it? Like rivals Arsenal over their goalkeeping situation, not much. Indeed, Spurs eventually sacrificed England world cup winger Aaron Lennon to the ol'...

This time last year, in the final few days before the closure of the international football transfer window, we took a look at where London's Premiership clubs needed strengthening and offered some friendly advice about a player we thought might fill a key squad gap for each of them. One year on we review what actually happened to both clubs and players and make our suggestions for this year's late purchases, once again taking...

This time last year Fred Pappoe, Vice President of the Ghanaian Football Association (middle of picture) declared in the wake of Ghana's 2-0 victory over Togo in Brentford that "London is one of our favourite places away from home." One year on and they're making good on his words as they play another friendly here on Tuesday night, 21st August at 7:45pm against Senegal at Millwall's New Den stadium. Talismanic captain Stephen Appiah (pictured...

Yesterday we began giving you our thoughts on value-for-money selections for your Premiership fantasy football teams as you take the plunge entering Londonist's league (code number: 319926-64249) or one of the countless others on offer with the 2007/8 season getting underway this weekend. In the second and final instalment of our musings on the subject we'll soon tackle the remaining London teams, followed by those from around the country, but first, as promised in part one, we bring you our top recommendation, a player you simply must own for the big kick-off.

• Rumours are afoot that Chelsea are going to move to a super stadium
• A foul-mouthed West Ham fan has been banned from attending matches
• Elvish gimpboy Orlando Bloom is to appear in the West End.

• Black cabs in Hong Kong?
• Sex academy Amora opens. Not to be confused with West Ham striker of almost same name.
• Marathon claims the life of one participant.
• And the freesheets accuse each other of all kinds of dirty tricks.

Congratulations to Stef Penney on winning the Whitbread Costa book of the year prize. Her novel, 'The Tenderness of Wolves' set in northern Canada in the 1860s was written and researched at the British Library. Walworth is not the best place to buy cosmetics unless you're a sucker for side effects. West Ham have been told they can't play in the new Olympic stadium. Iron Maiden will not be pleased. And bad news too...

On 27 May, Pentecost Sunday, West Ham United football stadium, in Newham, is to be the site of the "Global Day of Prayer". Newham is the most ethnically diverse borough in Britain.

It might not be a vintage season in the league, where many of the capital's football clubs are looking nervously over their shoulders at relegation, but London seems determined to have at least one finalist in the first FA Cup showpiece at the new Wembley as yesterday's draw offered the possibility that as many as 44% of the fourth round matches (seven out of sixteen) could be played on our collective doorstep on the same weekend at the end of January.

Yesterday we said:

When he was running through what he would say in the run up to his side's match with Queens Park Rangers last Saturday, we're guessing Coventry City manager Micky Adams, once in charge at nearby Fulham, hadn't reckoned on the above request. Fans often have transport problems in the last few miles before reaching a big game, but, when one of the sides playing is marooned, bold actions are called for.

And so West Ham finally decided to step off the Train to the Clouds and join the Polar Express instead. On Tuesday morning the club released a statement to the Stock Exchange "confirming acceptance from the major shareholders of an £85million offer" from an Icelandic consortium led by tabloid photographer's delight Eggert Magnusson and backed largely by funds emanating from his countryman Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson.

Londonist has to say that, despite Charlton's poor start to the season, we were still pretty gobsmacked when we learned on Monday night that a club who had employed its previous manager for almost 15 years had just shown the door to his successor after only 167 days. Apparently, we weren't the only ones:

Now you see it, now you don’t. The surprise announcement a week ago that Leyton Orient’s Matchroom Stadium would host an international for the first time ever proved to be a touch premature as the Congolese Football Federation yesterday announced that their proposed game with Albania had been called off. Leyton Orient’s own website said:

Word has escaped from the huddle over West Ham’s books that a deal to finalise the new ownership of the club could be close. Those old friends of the media, Sources Close, have hinted to The Guardian that the “due diligence” process, where the buyer is allowed to have a look at the seller’s current operating state, is almost complete, leading the newspaper to speculate that a formal offer might be forthcoming as early as this Friday.

Ah, the autumn of 2003, with imitation Russian hats for sale on Fulham Broadway amidst gathering hope that plucky “Chelski”, bankrolled by glamorous Russian gazillionaire Roman Abramovich, were going finally to break open the Arsenal – Manchester United deadlock. In the three years since then the loudest criticism the Chelsea owner has had to endure has been that the traditional big boys can’t keep up. A few voices have stubbornly alleged darkness in Abramovich’s past, but on the whole he’s been welcomed into the English game as the endearing outsider who rescued the pauper princes of the Kings Road, which must leave West Ham United fans a bit bewildered at the number of commentators rushing to demand an inspection by the Pied Piper of the new investment poised to revolutionise their club.

“Black Stars of Ghana! A striker wanted!” cried the commentator for Accra’s Hot FM as half time approached with his team unable to turn the superiority of their possession and play into a goal against a determined and well-organised Togo side in last night’s friendly at Brentford’s Griffin Park.

As that stadium near Neasden inches its way towards completion the world’s top soccer nations still can’t resist the draw of the capital. If you’re Welsh or just interested in watching four teams from this summer’s world cup on your doorstep then the next few weeks will be very appealing.