Boss Defiant

Glenn Roeder had a positive meeting with the players on Sunday as work began in earnest towards trying to get back into the battle to avoid relegation - and Glenn promises the players will "come out fighting."

Treatment, training, and talking was the order of the day, and Glenn says:

"I have got to pick them up but they have got to pick themselves up; it is a combination of coming in to work today and we had a positive talk.

"It is part of my job to but you can only ask them to react in a certain way; I am sure they will, and we will come out fighting on Monday.

"Because of the result at Bolton we know we have to win this game and we really need to Blackburn to beat Bolton to bring it back to three points."

Glenn is not thinking about any other game than the penultimate home fixture of the campaign, and he adds:

"That is how it has always been, we have never looked beyond the next game, and all our attention is on us playing well and getting three points against Middlesbrough.

"We know the situation, but we are at Upton Park and we want three points for our supporters - then we will have to look elsewhere to see what has happened at Blackburn.

"People are trying to suggest that it is over and it is not over."

As for the furore surrounding the incidents when Ian Pearce got sent off and again at the end of the game, he says:

"They are exaggerated; Ian won't be happy with the tackle, a very late one that brought Andre down, but what is not necessary is the way that all the players get round Ian and the referee.

"They should let the referee deal with the situation and stay away, but it is like talking to a brick wall asking players to do that.

"They don't ever seem to learn, and it just makes the whole situation completely worse.

"At the end, apparently there were some unsavoury incidents but I was down the tunnel in the dressing room immediately after the game and I didn't see what happened."

Reflecting on the Bolton game following a night of analysis, he adds:

"We haven't played badly; it was a tense affair and no one expected the game to be one of flowing football.

"It was the points that were up for grabs that both teams wanted; the goal has changed the game - which goes without saying - and we opened the game well.

"In the first 15 or 20 minutes I thought we had by far the better possession and the few chances that were on offer came our way."

Glenn was left to rue missed scoring opportunities, though, and he adds:

"Fredi Kanoute could easily have put us in front in the first few minutes of the game when he surged away; I am not sure what he tried to do but he will be disappointed with the effort.

"It is a completely different game if we take the lead but we didn't, and the ironic thing is the goal has come when we are in their penalty box five or six seconds earlier.

"Jermain Defoe looks like he has got a chance and cuts inside, the shot gets blocked and comes out to Eduoard Cisse who hits the ball well, that gets blocked and the ball breaks out to Okocha who drives over the half way line.

"We went to ground too easily trying to win the ball from Okocha over the half way line, he continued on his run and the back four backed off instead of coming to Okocha to make him shoot from 30 or 35 yards instead of 20, and then he struck the ball very well, we have to say that.

"But while it is 1-0 you always have a chance of getting something from the game, and sure enough young Jermain Defoe had a marvellous chance in the second half; it is really disappointing that he has not made the keeper make a save at least.

"On another day he is expected to score there and he is disappointed he hasn't - and it would have been a completely different atmosphere if we take a point from the game.

"He might have snatched at it a little bit and in the past two games he has certainly had some wonderful chances.

"They haven't done any better than us over the 90 minutes but they have scored the one goal to beat us and separate things; it is a fine dividing line.

"David James had very little to do and if it came down to the young fellow scoring the goal it would be a different conversation - it is a game of chance."

Incidentally, around 5,000 people watched the beamback at Upton Park on Saturday.

SQUAD: James, van der Gouw, Bywater, Johnson, Repka, Pearce, Dailly, Brevett, Byrne, Noble, Moncur, Cole, Winterburn, Garcia, Carrick, Breen, Cisse, Hutchison, Sinclair, Defoe, Ferdinand L., Lomas, Kanoute, Ferdinand A.