West Ham Vs Norwich – Wednesday 12th Jan
Before kick-off prediction 2-1 west ham.
My pre-match bet was, Bowen to score, Over 2.5 goals, 50+ fewer booking points, and under 12 corners.
I have to admit this game came out of nowhere, I wasn’t thinking about going to watch a game and a friend of mine found tickets for £20! This was an offer I couldn’t refuse. I had never been to watch a game at the Olympic stadium before and it was definitely on my list.
To say I had a bad experience trying to get to the stadium would be an understatement, traffic at every point, and missing the earlier train. However we did make it to the stadium in plenty of time, next came the long queue trying to get into the game. I wanted food and a drink as well so we ended up missing the first 8 minutes. From what I have heard we didn’t miss much. My hot chocolate and burger came to £11.50 and at first, I thought it was a bit expensive however that seems fairly common plus it helped that the burger was nice!
When we finally sat down, Norwich seemed to start well and west ham didn’t seem like controlling the ball much and didn’t make many convincing passes. Around the 15th minute though this changed and from that moment west ham never seem too uncomfortable with the game. The away fans were in great voice but when you concede it always kills the mood. That’s exactly what happened when Bowen correctly had a goal disallowed, what a goal it would have been if it had counted. It didn’t take much longer though as Bowen got his much-deserved goal.
At halftime, we went to grab a drink but the queues were mad so I gave up, I’m glad as we got to see the full second half. When you have a player in your fantasy football team you want them to do well but when Antoni missed a clear goalscoring opportunity I was livid! In general, he didn’t play that well, he was a ghost realistically. West ham controlled the game-winning every ball making simple passes and effectively making Norwich look like a championship team. Norwich had made all their subs by the 75th minute and west ham had made 0 still. I was a little confused by this as the west ham was still only 1-0 up and needed to either kill the game off or shut up shop. Fabianski makes blinding save and just like that Bowen goes and makes it 2-0. This guy is a talent and it won’t be long until he gets a bigger move, to think he was purchased from Hull for £22 million seems like an absolute bargain now!
My favorite chant of the night was I’m forever blowing bubbles, if you know football then you know this is a classic fan chant with plenty of history. Even when West Ham scores they get the bubbles going. Another unsuccessful game bet but I still like doing them as it gives another element of enjoyment when watching the game. I would say the stadium was at about 80% to full capacity but maybe because it was a mid-week fixture the stadium wasn’t exactly rocking, the supporters knew they would win and that they did.
My man of the match goes to Bowen of course he looked unbelievable and probably even deserved a hat trick.
Overall my time at the Olympic stadium was fun and we got a good game with a few goals. Plus it didn’t take too long to get home which helps when you have work the next day. As is now custom for me on my travels home I read the matchday program and I have to say it was pretty good, a great analysis of the previous games they played, nice plug-in for games coming up and they are very reasonably priced tickets. Some good interviews in there from Noble and Dawson so for £3.50 I couldn’t complain.