Carabao Cup
Wednesday 26th September 2018
Despite my uncanny ability to pick 'random' games to attend which then transpire to be either boring goalless draws or just plain boring, this was a polar opposite experience.
Surprisingly, despite my various trips here, there and everywhere, it was my first trip to the Olympic Stadium as it will always be known to me and I could hardly have witnessed a better game considering it was one of West Ham's biggest ever wins - definitely their best result since the move from Upton Park, and the scoreline is one which probably won't be bettered for a long time.
Furthermore, they'll not play anyone as poor as Macclesfield again in a while, either.
The Olympic Stadium is a classy venue quite close to Stratford Station and it's obvious to see that the surrounding area has had significant sums invested into it in recent years.
However, the plush, luxurious and damn expensive eateries and everything else nearby, means the 'fan experience' of a trip to West Ham could hardly be further removed from Upton Park which was in a 'rough and ready' part of East London where dodging bricks and bottles was quite common.
I was down in London for a few days; scouting at Barnet versus Havant & Waterlooville the previous night and then with this game. With cheap tickets (just £10) it meant it was too good to miss and quite an inexpensive way of personally visiting a new stadium.
Obviously, with West Ham being in the Premier League and Macclesfield at the foot of League Two without a league win since the season begun, the Hammers were strong favourites and they were expected to comfortably progress.
However, despite old cliches like 'this is one to enjoy' and 'there's no pressure on the underdogs' being trotted out in the build up, by the final whistle there was no escaping the fact that Macclesfield were absolutely f**king awful and produced one of the worst displays that I've ever seen in 950 senior competitive games in the UK.
When I saw Fiacre Kelleher's name in their starting line-up then I instantly feared for them as I'd seen him have an absolute stinker for Solihull Moors in a game at Boreham Wood in the National League (one division lower), the previous season.
West Ham weren't at full-strength by any means but Manuel Pellegrini hadn't gone to the point where he'd named all the kids and expected them to win.
What transpired though was an early chance for the visitors and a goalmouth scramble where they very nearly poked their noses ahead. Then, once the first few minutes were out of the way, it was an absolute pummelling in football terms - irrespective of whether the goals went in.
Michail Antonio broke the deadlock on the half-hour and, straight away, the floodgates opened and it just got worse... and worse... and worse. It was 3-0 by the break, 6-0 after 55 minutes and then the Hammers eased off to an extent and showed mercy to their hapless opponents.
Despite all the guff, there were literally no positives whatsoever for Macclesfield and it amazed me that Mark Yates managed to survive a few more weeks in the job after this result, before the inevitable P45 came his way.
Sol Campbell, his successor, deserves an enormous amount of credit for keeping them in the Football League - thus avoiding becoming the first ever team to get promoted from the National League and then suffer instant relegation. They were literally horrendous (even in this mis-match) and it was plainly obvious to see and realise, so absolutely fair play to him!
If/when I return to the Olympic Stadium in the future then I don't expect an 8-0 scoreline - unless, of course, they're playing Macclesfield.
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