Hastings gull
Well-known member
- Nov 23, 2013
- 4,652
Very much this.
I watched the Spurs v West Ham cup match last week, and the commentator referred to West Hams "humiliation" against Brighton about 3 of 4 times during the course of the game. HUMILIATION. As if they'd got turned over at home by a team from the noddy leagues. Newsflash: It was two lower-midtable teams playing each other in a LEAGUE match. It was hardly the shock result of the decade.
Then of course you've got the West Ham captain coming out saying "we shouldn't be getting beat 3-0 by Brighton". The perception of BHA by players, fans and the media is hugely patronising. Many had already decided in the summer that we were the cannon-fodder for the season, the whipping boys just popping in paying a visit to the PL before being slapped back down. So when we do actually BEAT someone, its met with general astonishment and an assumption that whoever we'd turned over simply couldn't have turned up on the day.
Tiresome. But all the while we are being dismissed and underestimated, we'll continue to surprise the ignorant, and we'll continue to harvest regular points.
You are right and I agree totally with your sentiments. To put matters into perspective, however, we have not been in the PL before, and for many year nowhere near it, and so it is perhaps understandable that other folk see us as cannon fodder. Think last year - had Burton won 3-0 at the Amex, I dare say that we might have just reacted in the same way. But as you say, it is nonetheless tiresome.