West Ham United 2 v 0 Birmingham City

Saturday 5th January 2019
FA Cup 3rd Round
London Stadium, Stratford
Admission : £10.00
Programme: £3.50
Attendance: 54,840

Although I had already visited what was the Olympic Stadium during the 2012 Paralympics, I have been wanting to visit again since the stadium was modified to become the host stadium of West Ham United. Tickets have been tough to come by, particularly for weekend fixtures and at a sensible price, but this fixture fitted the bill perfectly, with very reasonable ticket prices, a lunchtime kick-off opening up the possibility of combining with another match afterwards, and the opposition meant a realistic chance of a minor FA Cup giant killing.

The London Stadium is about a 15 minute walk from Stratford train station, following a fenced path away from the shopping centre, past the London Aquatics Centre and into the southern part of the Queen Elizabeth Country Park - formerly the Olympic Park. The stadium is certainly picturesque from the outside, with the Orbit Tower just in front, and with a bar and cafe at its foot. To access the area immediately outside the stadium, one has to pass through gazebos where extensive frisking, scanning and bag checking takes place after quite a long queue, then various refreshment outlets and the "Stadium Store" are located around the stadium. The London Marathon Community Track stadium, which Eastern Senior League outfit Hackney Wick hoped to move into this season until the venue was eventually deemed unsuitable, is behind and beneath the Stadium Store. To enter the main stadium, spectators scan their ticket at one of the turnstiles, before entering the concourse where a large array of unsurprisingly expensive refreshments can be purchased. The stadium interior has been redecorated in West Ham colours and slogans, and although the top tier of seating is virtually unchanged from London 2012, there have been major changes to the lower tier. From the sides, green carpet has been laid between the seating and the pitch, whilst behind both ends, temporary blocks of seating have been installed over the running track, with a walkway leading below and in front of the upper tier to the lower tier. I chose to sit in the front row of the upper tier behind one of the goals, and the view was reasonable enough, apart from being a little distant. It is an impressive stadium, boasting excellent facilities, but it just does not feel suitable as a football ground, with its circular design and spectators being too far from the pitch to encourage an intimate atmosphere. Quite unusually, a standard programme, not a condensed one, was produced for this FA Cup fixture and it offered plenty of interesting articles to read.

After seeming to struggle to adapt to their new surroundings, after controversially moving from Upton Park to the London Stadium in 2016, things are looking more positive this season under new manager Manuel Pelligrini, and they were in a comfortable tenth place in the Premier League, following eight wins and four draws from their 21 league games. After battling relegation in the last two seasons. Birmingham City are having a much better season, and were in eighth place in the Championship, four points adrift of the play-offs having won nine and drawn twelve of their 26 league games. Manager Garry Monk clearly wanted to give his club the best chance of progression, making just one change from Birmingham's last league game, although West Ham also fielded a strong line-ups too.

On a grey afternoon, West Ham certainly started this game on the front foot, forcing a corner within the first two months, and from the resultant corner, they took the lead. Angelo Ogbonna headed towards goal, the ball was parried by the keeper, only for Marko Arnautovic to head it into the net. That did prove something of a false dawn though, as although West Ham dominated possession, they did not look particularly threatening, and indeed Birmingham settled after the early set back, even managing to create a couple of decent chances. But there were no further goals in the first half, with everything left to play for after the break. There was an odd moment on 20 minutes, when Arnautovic was substituted as a precaution, a decision that he obviously did not agree with as the slowly trudged off the pitch shaking his head, to be replaced by Andy Carroll, who within barely a couple of minutes, fell to the floor and stayed there, with the medical team with stretchers at the ready. He soon recovered though.

The second half was a rather scrappy affair, which probably suited the visitors as, whilst they were not particularly threatening, they only needed to score a goal to force a replay. But as the end drew near, it was a case of third time lucky for Andy Carroll to finally score West Ham's second to seal their progress to the Fourth Round. On 83 minutes, his shot from 10 yards having dispossessed team mate Robert Snodgrass, glances the outside of the woodwork, then on 89 minutes, he knocked the ball past the keeper but too hard for an easy tap in and could only find the side netting, but in the 92nd minute he did score his first goal in just over a calendar year, with a powerful far post header from a Michael Antonio cross from the right.  Without looking remotely impressive, West Ham deserved the victory, and although Birmingham battled hard, they were very limited in attack to recover from their very early setback.