Deportivo Hammer
27/08/2019

First win of the season under the belt against Watford. We may have been fortunate at the back but in Sebastian Haller we have a forward who is going to find the net on a regular basis, providing he stays fit. It may not have been perfect but very important to get the season up and running and hopefully the team can play without so much pressure on them.

But today we focus on the Milk/Coca-cola/Littlewoods/Rumbelows or League Cup. It has had many names in the past, It’s now the Carabao Cup and I would love us to win it. So first up Newport County who last year managed to beat some high placed teams in both cup competitions. But hopefully lessons of last year have been learnt and while I do not think the team that lost to Wimbledon last year in the cup was a poor side. I do believe the players and Manager shouldn’t take their place in the next round for granted. From the first minute we are going to need to make sure we have learnt from previous years.

Newport have form this year and are playing well. They have yet to lose this season picking up 2 wins and 3 draws so far, and are in 5th place in the league. They managed to get to this round by beating Gillingham on penalties after a 2-2 draw equalising in added time.

A number of Newport players are struggling to be fit in time for the game Jaime Matt and Joss Labadie. While a couple of others, Bennett and Dolan are back in contention. Penalty hero Nick Townsend from the previous round should come back into the starting 11.

I would imagine Manuel Pellegrini will ring the changes for this game and so he should. We have some players who are probably itching to get out there and prove that they are worthy of a place in the usual match day squad. Players that we have not seen much of, Antonio, Sanchez, Fornals and Ajeti I expect to start and also play well.

Predicted Line Ups :

Newport County : Townsend, McNamara, Howkins, O’Brien, Haynes, Collins, Whitley, Huntingford, Sheehan, Amond and Abrahams.

West Ham United : Roberto, Zabaleta, Diop, Balbuena, Cresswell, Sanchez, Snodgrass, Wilshire, Antonio, Fornals and Ajeti. – Bench – Fabianski, Johnson, Ogbonna, Rice, Anderson, Haller, Coventry

This is a good side for this game I think that the fact that the only youngster on the bench will be Fullback Johnson. This shows that the management has learnt from the Wimbledon game and progress should be made. I expect us to get an early goal and then go on and score 4 or 5. Keeping a clean sheet would be nice but I doubt we can have everything. Ajeti to get off the mark and goals shared amongst the rest for a comfortable win which should keep the ball rolling on to the weekend.