West Ham's Dimitri Payet scores his and his side's second goal after firing past Newcastle keeper Tim Krul. PHOTO: REUTERS
Almost eight years after Bilic’s Croatia earned a 3-2 win at Wembley that ended McClaren’s hopes of leading England to Euro 2008, the two coaches faced off again at Upton Park.
It was a depressingly similar script for Newcastle manager McClaren as Payet scored once in each half to lift Bilic’s Hammers to
fifth place and leave Newcastle rooted to the bottom of the table without a win this season.
Lampooned as the ‘wally with the brolly’ after sheltering under an umbrella as he stood on the touchline watching England lose on that rainy evening in 2007, McClaren had to suffer a different indignity this time.
Newcastle’s manager and players were forced to walk the last mile of the journey to Upton Park after their team bus got stuck in the rush hour traffic.
That trek through the streets of east London appeared to be the worst possible preparation for facing West Ham as Newcastle produced a wretched display that left them without a league goal since the first day of the season.
“This was a wake-up call. These games hurt like mad. If we are not right we will get beat,” said McClaren. “I am not blaming the coach journey, you have to deal with that and we didn’t deal with it very well.”
For Bilic, it was a notable first home victory since he replaced Sam Allardyce as manager and continued a positive start that includes impressive victories at Arsenal and Liverpool.
“We fully deserved three points, we were better from the start,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2015.
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