I'm no fan of the friendly, but the performance last night was nothing short of a disgrace. Losing isn't an issue (but not ideal when you're living in Auckland) but being outfought and sometimes outplayed by what Sam himself described as a League One equivalent is a worry. Cole and Diame in particular were woeful, Cole in terms of lack of ability and his amazing knack of standing on his heels instead of anticipating the ball coming in his direction and Diame, well let's just say that he made Ince's infamous season opening stroll look frenetic. We should just pay up their contracts and get rid as soon as possible, neither can be any good for the club.

The only silver lining was the amount of West Ham there, took my breath away, hard to be accurate when people are dotted around the ground but probably around1,500 of us. I was at a conference centre in Auckland CBD for the day and walked out at about 5.30pm to the boisterous strain of Bubbles being sung from the nearby O'Hagans bar which surprised me a little and the locals a lot.