" West Ham aiming for more goals "
Mon May 07, 2012 7:33 am
" West Ham aiming for more goals "
May 7 2012
RUTHLESS West Ham have vowed to extinguish Cardiff City’s play-off hopes by scoring what will surely be a killer goal at Upton Park.
Sam Allardyce’s Hammers lead 2-0 after the first leg in the Welsh capital thanks to two goals from midfielder Jack Collison.
Malky Mackay’s Bluebirds have to open the scoring today to give themselves a fighting chance, but assistant West Ham boss Neil McDonald said it was the home side who would be going for the jugular.
“Preparation and planning is the key. We’ve done it for one game and hopefully we can do it for the second,” said McDonald.
“Our aim is to score a third goal in the tie. We’ll have to play off the front foot and kill the game off as quickly as we can. Everybody is fit and ready.”
If there was one factor which led to the Londoners missing out on automatic promotion then it was slip-ups in front of their own fans.
But in their last two games at Upton Park the Hammers have thrashed Brighton 6-0 and overcome Hull 2-1.
McDonald believes the West Ham home support will make a difference too.
“Our home form over the last two games has been really good which will give us confidence,” said McDonald.
“The support we had at Cardiff from travelling fans was fantastic and that will bounce onto the home game today. There will be a fantastic atmosphere, but it still won’t be an easy game to get through.”
The men looking to end the Bluebirds’ Premier league dreams will be Hammers strikers Carlton Cole and Ricardo Vaz Te today.
The Portuguese Vaz Te is expected to take a more advanced role than he did in the first leg up alongside England international Cole.
Hammers’ defender Matt Taylor praised Cole’s performance at the Cardiff City Stadium and warned he and his team-mates were looking to make it to Wembley in style.
“Carlton was virtually unplayable at Cardiff,” said Taylor.
“Every time the ball went up in the air he contested well, won it, brought it down and brought other players into the game.
“When he’s like that there’s no better player, especially in this league.
“Our job is to go out and win the second leg. We cannot look back and think about our lead overall.
“Cardiff come with nothing to lose.
“They’re not expected to score three or four goals.
“It couldn’t have gone much better for us over the first leg. It was a very professional performance from us. We weathered the storm.
“They were pushing for the last few minutes, but our goalkeeper didn’t have too many saves to make other than in the first half.
“We could have scored more goals, but we’re pleased with the clean sheet.”
Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/footballna ... z1uAPHY0CS
May 7 2012
RUTHLESS West Ham have vowed to extinguish Cardiff City’s play-off hopes by scoring what will surely be a killer goal at Upton Park.
Sam Allardyce’s Hammers lead 2-0 after the first leg in the Welsh capital thanks to two goals from midfielder Jack Collison.
Malky Mackay’s Bluebirds have to open the scoring today to give themselves a fighting chance, but assistant West Ham boss Neil McDonald said it was the home side who would be going for the jugular.
“Preparation and planning is the key. We’ve done it for one game and hopefully we can do it for the second,” said McDonald.
“Our aim is to score a third goal in the tie. We’ll have to play off the front foot and kill the game off as quickly as we can. Everybody is fit and ready.”
If there was one factor which led to the Londoners missing out on automatic promotion then it was slip-ups in front of their own fans.
But in their last two games at Upton Park the Hammers have thrashed Brighton 6-0 and overcome Hull 2-1.
McDonald believes the West Ham home support will make a difference too.
“Our home form over the last two games has been really good which will give us confidence,” said McDonald.
“The support we had at Cardiff from travelling fans was fantastic and that will bounce onto the home game today. There will be a fantastic atmosphere, but it still won’t be an easy game to get through.”
The men looking to end the Bluebirds’ Premier league dreams will be Hammers strikers Carlton Cole and Ricardo Vaz Te today.
The Portuguese Vaz Te is expected to take a more advanced role than he did in the first leg up alongside England international Cole.
Hammers’ defender Matt Taylor praised Cole’s performance at the Cardiff City Stadium and warned he and his team-mates were looking to make it to Wembley in style.
“Carlton was virtually unplayable at Cardiff,” said Taylor.
“Every time the ball went up in the air he contested well, won it, brought it down and brought other players into the game.
“When he’s like that there’s no better player, especially in this league.
“Our job is to go out and win the second leg. We cannot look back and think about our lead overall.
“Cardiff come with nothing to lose.
“They’re not expected to score three or four goals.
“It couldn’t have gone much better for us over the first leg. It was a very professional performance from us. We weathered the storm.
“They were pushing for the last few minutes, but our goalkeeper didn’t have too many saves to make other than in the first half.
“We could have scored more goals, but we’re pleased with the clean sheet.”
Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/footballna ... z1uAPHY0CS
Re: " West Ham aiming for more goals "
Mon May 07, 2012 11:32 am
That's good news for us - it means we will have every chance of captalising at the back.
Mind, if we're 1-0 up with 20 minutes to play, I don't expect them to carry through with that philosophy!
I think they are well capable of bottleing this
Mind, if we're 1-0 up with 20 minutes to play, I don't expect them to carry through with that philosophy!
I think they are well capable of bottleing this
Re: " West Ham aiming for more goals "
Mon May 07, 2012 5:46 pm
Die Walkure wrote:That's good news for us - it means we will have every chance of captalising at the back.
Mind, if we're 1-0 up with 20 minutes to play, I don't expect them to carry through with that philosophy!
I think they are well capable of bottleing this
I think you're right!!