Football Season Review

West Ham United began the 2011/12 Championship season as clear favourites to make an instant return to the top flight. The Hammers, managed by Sam Allardyce, still had an expensively assembled squad complemented by the summer arrival of new skipper, Kevin Nolan from Newcastle United. Despite a strong season throughout, United could only muster a third-place finish, leaving them exposed to the lottery of the playoffs. Allardyce's January recruitment drive gave them the impetus required to make that late push for the top flight. Strikers Nicky Maynard and Ricardo Vaz Te made a significant impact with the latter eventually scoring the winning goal in West Ham's playoff final win over Blackpool. West Ham's strength this season was their ability to grind out results on their travels. They had the best away record in the division and were surprisingly able to play with more freedom and creativity on the road than at Upton Park, where supporter expectation was often too much for the players to handle. Supporters were also heavily divided on boss, Allardyce who had the team playing attritional football at times, going against the long term footballing philosophies of the Hammers. Nevertheless, promotion was the target and promotion was the end result and they can now look forward to Premier League football once again.

Player of the Season: Rob Green