Team News
Mark Noble has joined the Hammers injury list but former Blue Matthew Upson has declared himself fit.
Blues will give a late fitness test to Roger Johnson and if he comes through that they are likely to be unchanged from the side that drew at Villa. Jerome is likely to be fit enough only for the bench and Garry O’Connor is set to be sent out on loan again.
Last Meeting
Out last meeting was at Upton Park in February where Blues lost 2-0 to goals by Diamanti and Cole. Our last meeting at St Andrews ended 1-0 to Blues with a goal by former Hammer Lee Bowyer.
Recent Form
Blues sit 15th having won just one of their last six games but have picked up eight of their eleven points at home.
West Ham are bottom of the table but are ahead of us in the recent form table having picked up all of their six points in the last six games. They have not won away since beating Hull in February.
Outlook
This is a strange fixture in that most of the attention in the run up to it has not been on the players or the managers but the on the respective boards. Saturday will be the first time that Gold and Sullivan have visited St Andrews since “realising their dream” of buying West Ham and the war of words between are old and new owners shows no sign of ending. We are of course used to David Gold’s need to be in the papers everyday and I for one will be happy when we never have to hear about this again. As I write this I hear that he is to be banned from the director’s box which strikes me as very petty but fitting with the general childishness on display by both sides. People have said that they will boo them. I don’t care enough to boo them.
With all this going on people have lost sight on what an important game this is for both sides. West Ham desperately need the points to get themselves off the bottom while we will consider this to be one of our must win home games. Three points is a must tomorrow as our next five games are away at Stoke, Man City and Fulham and home to Chelsea and Spurs. Can’t see too many points from that lot. As Liverpool and Everton have shown a couple of wins can pull you well clear of the relegation zone and calm the nerves for a while. We need to carry on our good work against Blackpool and Villa.
West Ham have problems especially in terms of goalscoring (They’ve actually scored less than us!) but I don’t consider them to be that bad a side. They have let themselves down with some bad defending at time but they have good players like Scott Parker and Frederic Piquionne while Rob Green played a blinder last week against Arsenal. Blues need to play with confidence and get players forward to support Zigic as often as possible. In this respect it will be good to have Gardner back and it will be good to get Jerome on for the last twenty minutes to run at tired defenders. That is of course if McLeish can actually make a substitution that early! I’m not too worried about our defence as long as Sir Roger makes it.
I have a certain amount of confidence for this one. Let’s hope afterwards people are talking about the game and not the owners.
My Prediction 1-0 Blues. Gardner to score.
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