Repka Rumour 'rubbish'

Glenn Roeder has laughed off the rumour which circulated last week claiming that Tomas Repka refused to come out for the second half against Leeds.

And he is furious that Tomas' professionalism has even been questioned by those that have put the claims forward. Glenn, responding to the story, says: "Contrary to the story that appeared on Planetfootball, there is no truth in it whatsoever.

"The decision for Tomas to come off was, firstly, because of the way it was going for him in the first half, we felt because of the running battle he was having with Viduka there was no way we could afford to lose a player with another yellow card.

"We couldn't take the chance of going down to ten men, and it seemed the sensible thing to do to withdraw Tomas for tactical reasons as well.

"That would get Sebastien Schemmel on to come and attack from right back, which is his natural position, and then it was easy to slide Christian Dailly inside to be a central defender with Ian Pearce.

"There was no question of Tomas refusing to go back on in the second half - it is absolute nonsense, rubbish.

"It was a case of not wanting to take a chance, because of the way him and Viduka were scrapping and getting into a physical challenge in the first 45 minutes at every opportunity.

"There was no problem for Tomas; he understood the situation, and Planetfootball goes on to say Tomas Repka has probably played his last game for West Ham - that is again absolute rubbish.

"He will play many times for West Ham; to refuse to play is not in his mentality and the story is nonsense."

"He is as disappointed as anyone about what went on in the first half defensively; he and the people concerned in the defensive errors will have to get over it, get back to hard work on the training ground, and not make the errors that they did - because they punished us badly."