Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)

The boy is back and not only did Winston get a start for the Hammers against Everton without being eased back in at all, he wore the captain’s armband too. That’s what can happen when Mark Noble’s been pants and gotten dropped but still a big rap on Reidy. His 200th game for the club as well, quite the honour.

The first question was which defender to drop to accommodate him: Jose Fonte, the mid-season signing coming off a European Championship with Portugal and several strong seasons with Southampton, or James Collins, a welsh international and a bloke who’s been around the club for years. The pair had managed to at least stabilise a trashy defence in Reid’s absence, though goalkeeping errors were another matter and Adrian also came in for Darren Randolph. In the end, neither Fonte nor Collins was dropped and Reid lined up in the middle of a back three.

The next question was how to contain Romelu Lukaku, a man who has incredibly scored in nine consecutive games against West Ham. Now that you mention it, Winnie has some thoughts about all that, as told to WHUFC.com:

“With a player like Lukaku, you have to keep tight to him and if he can’t turn, then he can’t score and it’s going to be difficult for him. You try and keep him away from goal – it’s pretty boring but it’s simple and effective! You have got to be on him when he’s in the box and I think we did well today.”

Rightio, there you go then. The master plan for nullifying the Premier League’s top scorer against his favourite opponent. It truly did work too, because West Ham shut him down. Shut him down like a faulty Windows 95.

Which culminated in one of the least memorable games of the whole season because as absent as Romelu Lukaku was and as bad as Ross Barkley played, Andre Ayew and Jonathan Calleri respectively offered just as little against Ashley Williams and Phil Jagielka. Jags got smashed in the face by a Manny Lanzini shot that looked like it could’ve decapitated him while Collins had a header go wide and Cheikh Kouyate got carried away with a bicycle kick that went nowhere. That’s about all that West Ham had to offer without Andy Carroll’s or Michail Antonio’s services but that was still a lot more than Everton managed.

The damn Toffees, they didn’t have a shot on target all game. Not only that but they didn’t have a shot at all in the entire first half. A dragged attempt from Ademola Lookman in the 71st minute was their first statistical shot at goal and it wasn’t even close. As for Lukaku, try as he might he found himself stuck in the pocket of a kiwi defender.

ESPN FC: “[Lukaku] was anonymous in the first 45 minutes, though admittedly had little service provided. He ended up dropping deep in search of possession -- although in vain; Hammers central defender Winston Reid repeatedly had the Belgian striker's measure.”

Thus the game ended 0-0, a result that the Hammers will take greedily while Everton are left wondering why they’ve been so bad away from home lately.

Winston Reid: “I guess that final ball wasn’t always there today and the sharpness, but these games earlier in the season we would have lost and we’re pleased to have come away with the point after working hard, which is what you always want. It was a decent performance from the team. As long as we keep up this good work then we can get the points that we need from now until the end of the season.”

ESPN FC Player Ratings: “DF Winston Reid, 8 -- Back from injury earlier than expected and his reappearance came at exactly the right time. An assured return; Reid didn't allow Everton's forwards a sniff of goal.”

A little Slaven Bilic from earlier in the week: “Winston Reid is back. He’s been training with the rehab and fitness coaches for a week now and they have done good work on his fitness, so he is back and trained with us on Tuesday. We know from before that he doesn’t need many games to get his form good, so it’s big for us of course because he’s one of our major players, one of the senators, as I call them. It’s a big boost for us for the remainder of the season.”

And some More Winston Reid: “It was good to be back out there today. I had just three or four days’ training with the team so I was never going to be 100 per cent fit, but the two old boys next to me did all my running, so that was nice!”

Up Next: Stoke vs West Ham at 2.00am on Sunday (NZT)

Chris Wood – Leeds United (English Championship)

Last week, as the whole thing was coming into some real focus, we went on and published a thing about whether Chris Wood would be playing in the Premier League next season. Based on the result they had a few days later, if he is gonna be there then he’ll need a transfer because it’s gonna take a miracle for Leeds just to crack the playoffs now. Crazy given where they once were.

142 days and 26 games they sat in the playoff places, more than half the season. Then they lost to Wolves last week and fell to seventh. Equal on points but behind Fulham on goal difference except that Fulham, while Leeds were taking on Burton Albion, with the score locked at 0-0 in the first half, Fulham were already 2-1 up over Huddersfield. The Cottagers conceded early through a Chris Lowe penalty but Scott Malone equalised and Tom Cairney put them up after 20 minutes.

Meanwhile Leeds were out there looking toothless and short of idea. Against a comparatively weak side as well, this was bad. Although… they did have the ball in the net inside the first ten. Kyle Bartley won a header before the Burton keeper could get to it and Chris Wood, NZ’s finest goal scorer, was there to pop it on in with his own noggin. Only the ref disallowed it. Offside, apparently. Safe to say that Leeds weren’t too chuffed with that, take a peek:

Gary Newbould/Yorkshire Evening News: “I’m still at a total loss as to why referee Darren Bond disallowed the goal as it was neither offside nor was it apparent that any infringement had occurred. However, the decision clearly appeared to affect the Whites as they then seemed to lose the initiative and the home side then began to dominate both territory and possession.”

The back three of Burton was causing issues for Leeds, who only had Woody up there against the backline and there wasn’t a lot of penetrative attack going on. A shot over the bar from Kalvin Phillips and another over the top from Pablo Hernandez. Luke Ayling headed wide as well, keeping a relatively boring game equal at the break… where news came through that Stefan Johansen had scored twice to give Fulham a 4-1 lead.

Still Woody didn’t get much involved. They couldn’t get him the ball, though Pontus Jansson and Pablo Hernandez each had great chances as the second half progressed and the Whites couldn’t make it happen. And then the disaster hit. Two rapid goals in the space of 90 seconds and they were 2-0 down. Marvin Sordell scored one and set one up. Ah, bollocks.

But almost immediately they had one back as a deep ball from Ronaldo Vieira hit Chris Wood, who used his head to send it back across the goal where Kyle Bartley scored from close distance. It almost looked like the ball was going in and Barts might have robbed one from the big fella but we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Back into the game now, Leeds went crazy for a leveller and the game opened up. Kemar Roofe came on as a second striker and twice was denied from close range while Burton countered at every opportunity. There were no more goals. Leeds went down 2-1 and their horrid late-season form continues – looks like it’ll cost them their chance to compete for promotion too which is a sad way to end things. At least they still have the division’s top scorer… unless he gets caught up in the last two weeks.

There’s still a mathematical chance that Leeds crack the top six again, but only really mathematical.

YEP Player Ratings: “Chris Wood - Joined by Roofe as part of a front two late on but nothing went right for the Championship's top scorer. 5/10.”

In much happier news…

Up Next: Leeds vs Norwich, 2.00am Sunday (NZT)

Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)

Damnit, can somebody win a game, please? Smithy at least played 90 minutes for once as he was given the start at the back. Next to Luke Chambers at CB. A pretty good showing from Smithy, to tell the truth. He won a few aerial challenges, made 12 clearances, blocked a couple shots and made a pair of tackles too. Strong day of defensive work at the office… which hardly clouds a terrible team performance.

Or maybe disinterested would be a better word. At least Ipswich know their season is over. Can’t get relegated, nothing left to play for. So they apparently donated three points to the registered charity of Rotherham United, the bottom team in the Championship, just for good vibes. Tom Adeyemi scored the decisive goal with eleven minutes left though Danny Ward also missed a penalty for Rotherham.

Grant Ward used to play for Ipswich though even he might not have recognised the team that Mick McCarthy threw out there. A bunch of changes what with nothing else to play for, it kind of backfired but it was interesting all the same. Danny Rowe and Dominic Samuel made their full debuts while Andre Dozzell got another go as well as young fullbacks Myles Kenlock and Josh Emmanuel. Smith was one of the old dogs on this occasion. Kenlock and Chambers were the only two players to keep their starting spots from the team that began the last game.

But you can watch the highlights for all that. It was a very silly game – Rotherham are gonna set the record for the fewest points in a Champo season and Ipswich failed to beat them twice.

Up Next: Home to Sheffield Wednesday at 2.00am Sunday (NZT)

Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)

What that says there is that Ryan Thomas was dealing with a groin complaint, which had limited him in training, and so started the weekend’s game on the bench. Here’s what happens when Ryan Thomas doesn’t start for Zwolle…

Actually all that says is he was subbed on as part of a double sub in minute 64. The reason for that probably had something to do with being 1-0 down at home to Heracles. Thommo didn’t help all that much as they let another one in and while Ted van de Pavert came on and scored with basically his first touch, it was a little too late and down they went 2-1. Samuel Armenteros scored both for Heracles.

There was plenty of work for Thomas who got a heap of touches, more in 26 minutes than the dude he replaced, Mustafa Saymak, had in 64 of them. Two shots as well but they were both off target, dammit. Also a key pass and a few crosses that didn’t quite lead to anything. Nice to see them show some fight but with five games without a win now, they still need another win to make sure they avoid the relegation playoffs. Lucky for them the teams at the bottom keep on losing.

Up Next: Home to Heerenveen, Monday 12.30am (NZT)

Jeremy Brockie & Michael Boxall – SuperSport United (South African Premier Soccer League)

Well now, how about that bad boy!?

Less than twenty minutes to go in the Nedbank Cup quarterfinal, away from home and everything in a competition where the trophy currently sits in their own cabinet, and Brockie comes up with that to give his team the lead. What a lovely strike. It came from a corner won when Brockie had a header turned narrowly over the bar to keep the scores level but there was no denying him the second time.

It had been a tight, nervous game before then. Needed something great to open things up… but then they couldn’t hold the lead longer than five minutes before Ramahlwe Mphahlele pumped a header over the line for glory. Brox then could’ve scored a similar one to the one he did score with two minutes left but a foot from the keeper turned it wide and we were off to extra time.

Worth mentioning here that the other All White in the side, Mike Boxall, was playing a strong game and keeping Kaizer Chiefs at bay too – both of them played 120 minutes – but during the bonus footy it seemed that SSU had thrown it away when Dean Furman’s handball gave away a spottie for the lead. But Reyaad Pieterse was able to save a slack penalty and we were off to a whole shootout of penalties next. Yeah, it was one of those games.

SuperSport scored all five of theirs, KC missed their second so when Jeremy Brockie stepped up to the mark for numero five, it was for the victory. And he made no mistake.

Hell, his coach was raving all about him. Well, in a backhanded compliment kinda way given the difference between his form last year and this but still, a compliment’s a compliment.

Stuart Baxter on Jerry Brockie: “Jeremy played like Jeremy tonight. He's been a little bit anonymous, he's not been doing himself justice and I think he's worried about it. Good players, they worry about their form, and I think he's worried about it. We had spoken with him and tonight I think he got back on track, and I think there were a lot of our players that got back on track tonight.”

They also lost 1-0 to Mamelodi Sundowns in the league for their third PSL defeat in a row after only one in 21 but this is a cup team now, it seems. Both Brockie and Boxall played 90 against Sundowns and it was a lot better than their 5-0 defeat in the previous game.

Up Next: Away to Bidvest at 5.30am on Weds (NZT)

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