West Ham are coming to town on Purchy's big day

I tried to find out from some of the West Ham bloggers who they thought might be playing in the Hammers team for Stephen Purches' testimonial, but they didn't seem keen to give anything away. Not to worry, AFCB's official site gave away the low down on their team on Friday morning. Last time out West Ham played Cork away and they found the Hammers in good for with a 2: 6 scoreline at the end of the match.

This was the Wet Ham team.
First-half XI: Jaaskelainen, Demel, Collins, Bramble, Potts, Diarra, Collison, Nolan, Cole, Jarvis, Maiga.

Second-half XI: Adrian, Potts, Tomkins, Reid, Rat, Noble, Morrison, Whitehead, Vaz Te, Taylor, McCallum.

West Ham's £15m striker Andy Carroll missed out as he had a heel injury and it doesn't look like he will travel to Dean Court, which will be a pity. Joe Cole and Mark Noble were the pick of the players and AFCB will have to be aware of their quality finishing. 

But West Ham's top scorer last season was midfielder Kevin Nolan who doesn't miss very often from 12 yards. It is possible that we will get a look at Adrian, West Ham's new keeper from Real Betis although I am looking forward to seeing our boys stick a few past Jaaskelainen as he has cost me plenty of fantasy league points over the years.

The West Ham site says that the club has sold their full allocation of tickets for the match against the Bournemouth X1, but there is no note of exactly how many tickets that is. I would expect some 1500 seats for the Hammers. West Ham will also play Colchester and Hamburg before playing Cardiff City in their first Premiership fixture of the new season. Those games will be a step up from Boreham Wood who the Hammers beat 3:0 in a recent friendly, so I'm expecting them to put in a descent performance today.

As we know Bournemouth will field Darren Anderton, Steve Fletcher and Stephen Purches at some point during the testimonial game, but how many more of the first team are on show is anyone's guess, but hopefully we will see new signings Ward and Harte. 

It's been in the press that Coulibaly will not be reporting to the club until Monday, although he could be in the crowd. Perhaps Matthews and Fraser will also get another opportunity as they have really impressed in pre-season. The main thing is that it should be a day to enjoy and wouldn't it be great if Purchy got his name on the score sheet.

My boss is a Hammers fan so don't let me down Cherries. Monday's are bad enough as it is.

Right; tickets, sun hat, sun cream, AFCB shirt, kids, money, camera, pen and paper  - I think I have everything ready for today's game. See you there!

I understand you can still buy tickets today at the ground.