Hammers quartet entertain fans

West Ham United's disabled supporters were treated to an entertaining evening at the Boleyn Ground on Tuesday, as assistant manager Neil McDonald, Club ambassador Tony Carr MBE and first-teamers Carlton Cole and Joey O'Brien took the floor at the latest fans' forum.

The fans in attendance made the most of the opportunity to quiz the Hammers' coaching and playing staff on an excellent start to the season and the prospect of more of the same between now and the campaign's end. 

And while matters on the pitch naturally dominated proceedings, discussion also ranged from the popularity of James Collins' dressing room playlist to Academy graduate Jimmy Bullard's 'I'm a Celebrity' jungle diet! 


Macca, Carlton Cole, Tony Carr and Joey O'Brien field questions

Macca, meanwhile, spoke at length of the confidence in the camp and the positive impact of competition for places, and was only too glad to share his assessment of things with West Ham's loyal supporters.          

"It was really good fun," he told West Ham TV. "With the situation at the football club at the moment, it's on the up, everybody's enjoying themselves, everybody wants to hear a little bit of a story and hopefully we've entertained them. We've given them a little bit of information on how we're trying to do things, what's in the pipeline and I hope they've got something out of it, which is great."

Sentiments echoed by Hammers full-back Joey O'Brien, who had to field his fair share of testing questions too, and hoped the supporters had taken as much from the experience as he had.

"That's part and parcel of why it's so good coming to these events, you don't know what you're going to be asked," he added. "You've got to be on your toes up there answering the questions!

"It's really good coming to these events, the heartbeat of the football club is the fans and for us to come in and have a bit of a laugh and answer some questions, give them a bit of an insight into what we do behind the scenes, makes for a great event." 

Elsewhere, Sanjay Chadha, a Season Ticket Holder in the Alpari Stand Lower, was impressed with the Hammers panel on the night, not least with the Club on the crest of a wave just now.             


Carlton Cole meets Season Ticket Holder Sanjay Chadha

"At the moment, because we are so exciting, because we are so positive, it vibrates throughout the fans and long may it continue," he said. "The trick now is for us to keep it up and maintain this vibrancy and this excitement. But the fans' forum in particular, is a very special time for the Club's disabled supporters

"It was a chance for supporters that go week-in, week-out to get an insight into how the players and how the management structure is approaching the Premier League this season, particularly with the new attacking formation that we're playing.

"I think it's been a very positive evening, from the point of view of having someone like Tony Carr, right up to the players, and with the assistant manager, I think it was an all-round good representation of the team approach that we've had this year."