I’m not going to rest us for the play-offs, says Sam Allardyce

West Ham will go out ‘all guns blazing’ tonight despite their automatic promotion hopes looking bleak
23 April 2012

West Ham will revert to Plan A tonight as, in Sam Allardyce’s words, “We go all out for the win at Leicester” which will keep their flickering automatic promotion hopes alive.

The Hammers manager was ready to rest most of his first-choice team tonight and begin serious planning for the inevitable play-offs had Southampton sealed the second automatic promotion place with a win at Middlesbrough.

However, Nigel Adkins’ team lost 2-1 at the Riverside and that means thoughts of the play-offs have been put on hold.

The task though, remains crystal clear for Allardyce’s team. They must win tonight to sustain the uncertainty as far as Saturday’s final game where West Ham would still need to beat Hull City and hope Southampton slip up against already relegated Coventry.

“It was a great result for Middlesbrough on Saturday but the odds are still heavily stacked in Southampton’s favour,” admitted Allardyce. “They have a fantastic home record but if it goes to the last day of the season and we’re still in with a shout, who knows? Before that, though, we have to go out against Leicester with all guns blazing.”

A major problem for Allardyce as he considers his line-up is that two of his strikers are major injury doubts.

Nicky Maynard twisted an ankle while playing against his former club Bristol City six days ago while Carlton Cole’s troublesome knee has flared up again.

“It’s a bit gutting that both players could be missing tonight but Sam Baldock, Ricardo Vaz Te and Kevin Nolan are more than capable of scoring vital goals,” said the West Ham manager, who will again be without Joey O’Brien while George McCartney is still recovering from concussion.

“Our perennial problem this season has been our goal conversion rate,” said Allardyce. “We’ve had around 20 attempts in most games, many more than most teams but we’ve not managed to score enough goals.

“Kevin Nolan, though, has been exceptional. He’s scored 12 goals from midfield so far and we couldn’t have asked more from him.

“We’ve been one of the most creative teams in the League yet still not quite reached our ultimate goal.

“When we flow, though, we don’t just score ones or twos but threes and fours. It’s been an unusual season because, when we’ve needed a 1-0 scoreline, we’ve too often finished up at 1-1. Those fine lines have cost us.”

The latest costly draw came at Bristol City. “We let ourselves down there,” said Allardyce. “I told the players beforehand that, if ‘we win this game our destiny is much more in our own hands.’ We’ve still only lost one game in 16 and two in 2012 yet we’re not where we wanted to be.

“Whatever happens, though, there’s massive positives about what we’ve achieved. We’ve been consistent, we’ve lost fewer games than anybody yet we still feel some negativity.

“When the club last went back to the Premier League they finished in sixth place before winning the play-offs.

“I can understand the negativity to a certain extent because we did raise everyone’s expectations but the players have been resilient all season.

“We have to continue to play in the good form we’re in. We might have hoped for better results but our form has stood up well.

“We haven’t had a Rickie Lambert. Strikers like that make a difference, as Wayne Rooney does for Manchester United and Robin van Persie does for Arsenal.”

Goalkeeper Ruud Boffin has left West Ham after having his contract cancelled by mutual consent. The Belgian joined the club in September 2010 as cover for No1 Rob Green but made just three first team appearances.

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