When Craig Dawson arrived on loan from Watford his nick name apart from the obvious 'Les' Dawson was the Relegator, due to him having been a 'serial offender' when it came to being a player for teams that got relegated, to say his arrival was greeted with a lack of enthusiasm would be an understatement.
He was of course not on a par with Roger “the Relegator” Johnson who signed for West Ham on loan from Wolves in 2014 and made 6 appearances in all competitions but is most famous for the 6-0 defeat against Manchester City in the League Cup where he demonstrated keystone Cop defending in an attempt at dealing with Yaya Toure. Johnson threw his shirt into the crowd at the end of the game, but had it thrown back to him by the despairing fans.
However a couple of years on from arriving at the club Craig's nick name is now 'Balon' Dawson, he has experienced such a change in his fortunes that he is a total fan favourite now and when missing for the first few games of the season the team did not fare well defensively at all, which made the natives at the Queen Elizabeth 11 Stadium distinctly unhappy.
Having come within a couple of hours of leaving the club for family reasons Daws could have had a strop much like Issa Diop and pushed for a move, instead he knuckled down got fit and played with his heart on his sleeve in his first full 'proper' start of the season, the much needed win over Wolves.
Although not confirmed the club have apparently told 'Les' that they will do all they can to accommodate the moves he seeks in January once Ayegard has returned to fitness and in the meantime have organised additional personal transport facilities in order that he can commute between the North and London less stressfully.
David Moyes will almost certainly select 'Balon' to play against Anderlecht late tomorrow afternoon (KO: 17-45 BST) in a fixture that if won could see Hammers progress to the next round of the 'Con Cup' with games to spare! Moyes would absolutely love the opportunity of utilising his fringe players and some of the Academy's rising stars for what would essentially be dead rubber fixtures.
A good result tomorrow could send the players home with a spring in their step against the crucial London derby against Fulham on Sunday afternoon, hopefully last weekend's result wasn't just a flash in the pan and was actually the start of Hammers climbing to the heights of 18 Months ago. - Ed
