After three successive London derbies the Hammers will probably be glad to play the Swans at home. Defeats at Arsenal (5-1) and Fulham (3-1) will see Big Sam wanting a response from the Hammers. Looking to attack, they could leave themselves wide open for the Swans to pick off...
You always are Dill! There were some Swans fans queuing down the Liberty till gone mid day today who had been on the bus to Sunderland - they didn't even go home!!!
That's quality support PGF. One question though, do you think anybody should have told them about this wonderful new thing called the Internet and online purchases ?
Carroll set to feature West Ham boss Sam Allardyce is hoping to give more minutes to striker Andy Carroll against Swansea on Saturday as he continues to find fitness following a knee injury. Carroll, on loan from Liverpool, had not played since November until he made a substitute appearance in the midweek defeat at Fulham. The England striker is again likely to be on the bench for the Hammers who are still without defensive trio George McCartney (knee), James Collins (hamstring) and Dan Potts (concussion). Manager Sam Allardyce is glad focus can return solely to playing football now that the January transfer window has closed. The deadline passed fairly quietly for Allardyce after he signed Joe Cole, Marouane Chamakh and Emanuel Pogatetz before the frantic final day. Allardyce has always been vocal in his belief that the January transfer window should be scrapped and is pleased he can turn his attention back to halting the Hammers' recent run of poor results. "We are probably all waking up this morning and, whether we have done enough or we haven't, we will all be pleased that we can focus purely on the games of football we have between now and the end of the season," he said. "All of the usual mayhem has taken place yet again and we've all been in the middle of it at some stage or another and the distraction is a huge part of trying to get through this period of time and still produce results. "For us we haven't got the results we wanted to try and get for one reason or another but we haven't gone too heavy into the financial side of the market." Goalkeeper Michel Vorm will miss out for Swansea as he continues his recovery from a knee injury. Gerhard Tremmel will again fill in for the Dutchman at Upton Park, while Kemy Agustien (ankle) and Neil Taylor (broken leg) remain sidelined. Danny Graham's departure to Sunderland means Michu is likely to be employed as a lone striker, with Itay Shechter, who has yet to score this season, the alternative option for Michael Laudrup. "West Ham have a good team and if you let them play they have players who can play like (Mark) Noble, (Joe) Cole, (Matt) Jarvis and (Kevin) Nolan," said Laudrup. "Up front they have power with Carlton Cole, Andy Carroll and Marouane Chamakh, although he is a slightly different player. "It's a team that haven't had a good run lately, it is an important game for them, they need to bounce back and we have to continue our good moment."
WH have been shipping goals - even to Fulham - so we should go there with an intent to control the game and score some goals - like Sunderland but with some better work in the final third. Everybody should now be playing hard to earn a spot at Wembly.
Hard working, physical team with some tidy players. We will have to play well to win and I would take another draw from this one.
We haven't enough competition for places for that, Yankee. My fear is that some will be taking it easy so they don't get injured and miss the Final. West Ham are physical and it will be interesting to see how we cope with that.
well they didnt offer much at the Liberty. play our usual possession and fast passing game and we can beat these - after a couple of 0-0s need to get our scoring boots on though.
Yes Neveroff very good Looks like I'm the only one on this board going then. Oh well more pie & mash and jellied eels for me
