The 6,000 travelling West Ham fans who made the trip to Aston Villa on Friday night were in good voice and it helped debunk a myth.
West Ham’s FA Cup third round tie at Villa Park was looking make or break for the club’s season.
Realistically it appeared to be the only thing the Hammers had left to play for.
So it says everything about how encouraged supporters were by a magnificent first half performance that there has not been too much despondency.
Graham Potter had only been with the club 48 hours when kick-off rolled around in West Ham’s 2-1 defeat.
Indeed the new Hammers boss only had 24 hours and one training session working with the players.
Injuries to Niclas Fullkrug and Crysencio Summerville proved West Ham’s undoing as it handed the impetus to Villa.
But there was plenty to like about what many supporters feel is one of the best first half performances for over a year.
Logic says if this is what Potter can achieve in one day with the team, imagine what West Ham could look like over the next two-and-a-half years or more.
West Ham fans often get a bad rap.
Potter gives West Ham a glimpse of his magic
The away support were brilliant at Villa belting out many of the usual club favourites and singing their Ludo Miklosko tribute with extra fervour in the wake of his brave decision to end cancer treatment.
While it ultimately ended in defeat and exiting the FA Cup, there were plenty of positives for the Hammers.
That was reflected in the crowd.
And what West Ham fans chanted on Potter’s debut shatters a major myth.
Hammers supporters are often wrongly painted as a fanbase that’s hard to please.
But there is a big difference between being hard to please and being demanding.
Irons fans would admit they can be very demanding. But what they demand is nothing extraordinary.
Sneering pundits, rival fans and journalists often belittle the club’s ideals and the ‘West Ham way’.
The inference from those dismissing the West Ham way as a fallacy is that it is Barcelona-esque tika taka football. Sometimes it seems West Ham’s fans are not allowed to have standards, expectations and opinions.
But that’s not the true West Ham way at all.
What West Ham fans chanted on Potter’s debut shatters myth
West Ham supporters will forgive most things if they see their players giving maximum effort.
It is an absolute minimum requirement as a Hammer. Simple as that.
The real West Ham way is fronting up when things aren’t going for you. Being brave, showing for the ball and not hiding in times of adversity.
Always giving your all regardless of how you might be playing.
And of course the club’s Academy feeds into the essence of the true West Ham way alongside those things.
If you’ve got serious talent as well then you’ll be worshipped. But you have to earn it. It doesn’t come for free like at some clubs who put players and managers on pedestals when they’ve been in the building for five minutes.
Lastly it is about hope. Combining all of those things to give West Ham’s fans hope.
The real West Ham way in truth is probably no different to how Everton, Villa, Newcastle and other big clubs outside the so-called “elite” want their teams and players to play.
West Ham fans are too often portrayed as being impossible to please.
Hammers fans prove they’re not hard to please
It’s why so many rival fans and pundits told them to ‘be careful what you wish for’ with such glee when David Moyes departed.
Only to roll out ‘I told you so’ when Julen Lopetegui didn’t work out – as if the supporters had any say in his appointment. If they did then it wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
One of the biggest positives for West Ham at Villa Park was the inclusion – and performance – of Academy star Ollie Scarles.
West Ham are the self-styled Academy of Football. But it has gone ignored too long by a string of managers in truth.
Supporters were so excited and enthused to hear Potter state he wants to make more use of the Academy.
It’s all supporters have wanted to hear. The difference with Potter is, he backed it up with his actions.
Scarles was straight in the team, played brilliantly and was awarded man of the match.
Chants of ‘Ollie Scarles, he’s one of our own’ rang out relentlessly at Villa Park.
Supporters delighted to finally be able to sing that song again.
But listen to the wider football press – and probably some within the corridors of power at West Ham itself – and they’d have you believe we are spoilt brats who are never happy.
Bring through some of our own and play committed, entertaining, attack-minded football and you’re on to a winner with Hammers fans.
Is it really that difficult for those outside West Ham to understand?
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