Southend 1 V 3 West Ham

Last updated : 29 July 2007 By Chris Daniels
In a match marking the centenary of Southend United, a strong Hammers XI were led out by new captain Lucas Neill, and they were unlucky not to score midway through the first half when Bobby Zamora's header hit the bar when easier to score while the Blues defence seemed stuck in a last season time zone.

Freddie Llungberg was showing his class as was completely bad boy Bellamy as West Ham dominated. More action was taking place in the west stand as about 200 visiting fans were removed to the north west corner.

Just before half time the visitors doubled their lead after more sloppy defensive work allowed Zamora to head across the goal and then Bellamy headed into an empty net.

For Southend only a few players had played anything like they could. Black looks like he has something while we have to give more time to the others. Certainly the forwards need to get to know each other!
Bellamy, the day's best player, got the third when Lee Bowyer headed Matthew Etherington's ball against the bar. From the rebound, the Wales captain finished. That was after 39 minutes.

At the interval, Curbishley will have requested more of the same and he received it. Zamora laid the ball back for Ljungberg and Sweden's captain showed his quality by coolly side-footing home. For a couple of minutes, last season's complacency made a reappearance. Robert Green had spent the afternoon watching. Now, on 55 minutes, he had to pick out a 25-yard zinger from home captain Kevin Maher.

Suming up this was a tough game for the Blues where we will not have to meet this standard of opposition every week but Tilly will still be looking for a step up in passing and defending before Orient visit on August 11.

Maher 55; Zamora 29, Bellamy 39, Ljungberg 50

Crowd 9,522

SOUTHEND Flahavan (Collis 67); Hunt, Clarke (Liptak 81) Barrett, Hammell (Wilson 62); Black (Foran 60), Maher (Moussa 67), Bailey (McCormack 60), Gower (Lokando 87); Harrold (Paynter 62), Hooper (MacDonald, ht) Subs not used: Ademeno

WEST HAM Green; Neill, Ferdinand, Gabbidon, McCartney; Ljungberg (Reid 67), Noble, Bowyer (Mullins 62), Etherington (Pantsil 77); Bellamy, Zamora (Cole, 58) Subs not used: Wright, Spector, Upson, Collins, Davenport