No way back for Big Sam

After today's bizarre game in which West Ham looked both sublime and ridiculous in equal measures, it's likely that Sam Allardyce will need both the rhinoceros and elephant skins he claims to have in order to survive the expected backlash from the home fans.

Time up for Big Sam?

Whilst I have been one of Big Sam's fiercest critics, today's game was more the culmination of a dispiriting run of poor home form than the lowest point of the Hammers' season, but it will still be viewed by many as the straw that broke the camel's back. For many, there will be no way back for Allardyce after today's result.

Some people will think that harsh on a manager that has rebuilt a whole team and took them to within touching distance of an automatic promotion place, with six games still to play. And looking at today's game, Allardyce will I'm sure point to West Ham's first half dominance as proof that the team is perfectly capable of playing to the level required for promotion.

However, the truth is West Ham and Sam Allardyce just isn't going to work. It's a marriage made in hell, and many fans won't be happy until it ends in divorce. They had their doubts from the start, and Big Sam has done little to appease them since he first joined the club in the Summer.

His outburst against the fans this week was certainly ill-advised and many of the fans I spoke to today were still seething about it. Personally, I thought it was insulting and helped only to drive a bigger wedge between the fans and Allardyce than already existed. What other manager can you recall calling his own fans 'deluded' or saying they have been talking 'a load of rubbish'? 

Allardyce has complained about the lack of atmosphere in the ground this season, and I must admit that he has a point. But today the fans were in fine voice from the start and from what I heard from my seat, wholly positive. Even when the team went in 2-1 down at half-time, the crowd acknowledged that the team had at least given their all and importantly, tried to play some decent football. It was an improvement from recent performances at least.

But such is the nature of the modern football fan, most people on the District Line after the game were in agreement that Big Sam's time was up. And whilst today alone is not the reason for today's judgement, the combination of Allardyce's ugly football, brash manner and expected failure to get West Ham into the automatic promotion places, means that it is the right one.