Matthew Etherington

Date of Birth : 14th August 1981 Place of Birth : Truro Signed : August 2003 (Spurs) Position : Midfielder Height : 5.10 Weight : 10.7 Appearances: 159 Goals : 10 International Appearances : 0

KB: KUMB; HM Hammers Mad; ST Sunday Times; SE Sunday Express; SM Sunday Mirror; OB Observer;
DM Daily Mirror; GU Guardian; TM Times; HD Hammers Diary; SK Sky; DE Daily Express

Hammers Mad: John Paintsil found Matthew Etherington in the box and after a clever one-two with Bowyer, Etherington swept the ball home.

Iain Dale's Hammer's Diary: At times, especially in the first half, we looked awesom, especially down the left hand side, where Matty Etherington ruled the roost. (Iain Dale, 5th November, 2007)

Daily Mirror: West Ham wide boy Matthew Etherington last night admitted he "hit rock bottom" because of his gambling addictions. The winger spent a week in the renowned Sporting Chance clinic undergoing treatment for his gambling habit last season. Etherington, 26, blew tens of thousands of pounds on horses, greyhounds and in card schools - and even owned up that he could not remember the last day when he did not have a bet. He was left in total despair as his gambling addiction spiralled out of control at the end of 2006. While the majority of the Hammers' stars were driving round in Baby Bentleys and enjoying all the trappings of being Premier League stars, Etherington was in a VW Golf fearing that his Upton Park career was over. Boss Alan Curbishley was forced to impose a gambling ban on his first-team squad as keeper Roy Carroll also went into rehab, while high stakes late-night card schools ripped team spirit apart. Curbishley was desperate to break up the dressing room culture that he inherited. (David Cross, 4th September, 2007)

Matthew Etherington's goals against Reading

Sunday Times: After four minutes of the second half, West Ham had doubled their lead with a splendidly well-taken goal. It was interesting the scorer, who also played a crucial part in the build up, should be the left winger Matthew Etherington. Against Manchester City, sent on as a substitute, he had looked far the most impressive and effective of a largely dull team. He did not produce much of consequence in the first half. But now Bellamy moved the ball out to Etherington, who played a crisp one-two with his forward, then drove his shot home. (Brian Glanville, 2nd September, 2007)

The Observer: Three men deserve special praise. Craig Bellamy, showing pace and poise, scored the first and teed up the second. Matthew Etherington delivered the killer touches for the second goal and then - in the dying moments - the third. And the other West Ham hero was their goalkeeper Robert Green, who made the 76th-minute save from Kevin Doyle's penalty that ensured it would be a far more comfortable end to the game than it could have been for Alan Curbishley's team. (Arindam Rej, 2nd September, 2007)

KUMB: It made an immediate difference as just four minutes in McCartney set Matty off down the left. A dangerous cross was sent in which Bellamy failed to flick on, but Ljungberg managed to retrieve the ball and lay it off centrally where Zamora and Mullins did nothing more than get in each other’s way. Zamora eventually got a harmless snap shot away well wide of the right hand post. On 15 minutes, there was a similar piece of approach play as Zamora did well to win a ball and then chipped a great ball over the top of the defence to find the waiting Matty. He rifled a first time shot cum cross across the six yard box which evaded the lunging Ljungberg much to the anguish of the fans behind the goal. The crowd wanted Ashton on and the manager gave everybody their wish on 62 minutes, but the resulting tactical rearrangement was inexplicable. All the danger so far in the half had been coming down the left with Matty, yet the manager made a decision bordering on the inept to relegate our most penetrative player into left back duties, sacrificing McCartney. It was at that point that I felt that there was no way back for us. So it proved and the irritation with the tactics was deepened when the only real chance to get an undeserved draw came when the emasculated Matty managed to get into an advanced position and get over a great cross with just under ten minutes left. Ashton was waiting in an offside position - although he didn’t know it at the time - and on another day his volley might have bulged the net, but you feel that he needs quite a few more matches under his belt to get back right on tune. (East Stand Martin, 13th August)

The Times: Eriksson out-thought everybody on Saturday, including, most importantly, Alan Curbishley, his opposite number. From the start, West Ham struggled to get to grips with the breadth of the Swede’s game plan and by the second half Curbishley was so confused that he moved his best player, Matthew Etherington, to left back to accommodate Dean Ashton, negating his only chance of winning the match. “I didn’t do anything about the way they were going to shape up before the game and I moved too many people around in the second half,” Curbishley said. “Etherington went from wide left to left back, Bobby Zamora started up front and went left, Freddie Ljungberg started on the right then went left and Craig Bellamy started in the middle then went right. I was just trying to get a a spark and perhaps it would have been best left alone.” (Martin Samuel, 12th August)

Sunday Times: Untypically, West Ham’s fans booed their team off the field at half-time. But when Matthew Etherington replaced Boa Morte on the left flank after the break, things began to look up. Almost at once, Etherington was doing the kind of things that natural wingers should, finding room to send in a succession of dangerous left-wing crosses. On 50 minutes, one of those balls, an excellent cross, had the City defence in confusion, but Bellamy could not quite connect. Ten minutes later, Bobby Zamora beat two men, and bent in a swift cross into the goal-mouth from the right which Etherington only just failed to make contact. It was surprising, three minutes later, when West Ham finally brought Dean Ashton, peroxide blonde hair and all, onto the field as central striker but only and bizarrely to push Etherington into a deeper position on the left, with Bellamy deployed on the left-hand side of what became a three-man attack. The repositioning of Etherington was the more surprising and debatable for the fact that Schmeichel junior, in the City goal, a far smaller, slighter figure than his massive father, looked vulnerable to the high cross. (Brian Glanville, 12th August)

KUMB: Things were better for the first 20 minutes of the second period. In Etherington we had somebody who at least wanted to run at his defender and we did actually create a number of half chances from that source. The leftovers from one cross ended up on the edge of the box where Mullins and Zamora got in each other’s way. The ball fell kindly for Zamora who screwed his shot wide. Another Etherington cross was inches away from being converted by Ljungberg and there was cause for a few minutes for cautious optimism. However what followed was, tactically speaking, a little baffling. We’d all been expecting Ashton to appear and his prolonged warm-up suggested that this was going to occur sooner rather than later. Zamora was having a terrible match, most of which consisted of losing the ball and giving away needless free-kicks in his attempts to regain possession. The stage was set for the obvious switch. Instead Curbishley made the decision to remove Linda from left back pushing Matty back to left-back and pushing Bellamy out on the left. Thus, whilst we’d been denying City space by having Matty keep their right-back busy, the change meant that we conceded territory. As if to reinforce the point, the best chance we had fell to Ashton who volleyed over from close range from an Etherington cross on one of the few occasions that he got forward. (Gordon Thrower, 11th August)

Hammers Diary: At half time Curbishley subbed Bowyer and Boa Morte and brought on Etherington and Mullins. The first twenty minutes of the second half showed a little promise. Etherington constantly raced down the left and crossed the ball, only to find no one there. Etherington did more in the first five minutes of the second half than Boa Morte had done in the entire first half. Boa Morte didn’t seem to realise he was on the left and constantly went in field. It was left to Bellamy to ply his trade down the left. But when Dean Ashton came on... Curbishley brought off McCartney (who headed straight down the tunnel) and unbelievably moved Etherington to left back. After that he disappeared. (Iain Dale, 11th August)

WestHamOnline: You know what, this guy is winning everyone back. I didn’t think it could happen but I supposed when you have got Boa Morte playing like a right xxxx it makes things easier for him. He did well when he came on and had an urgency which spread through to the rest of the team. Got a few crosses in, nearly scored, won a few corners and over had an impact which is what we want to see. (Vinny, 11th August)