ALAN Pardew believes fans will be in for a festive treat when
Nottingham Forest visit Upton Park on Boxing Day.
Despite struggling this season, Forest remain a Club steeped in
tradition and with a keenness to play open, attacking football they
should find like-minded opposition in Alan Pardew's men.
"Nottingham Forest are a lot better than their League position
suggests," said Pards. "I've always enjoyed playing
against Forest because they have a great tradition of playing
football in the right way.
"They play the game in great spirit, are a dangerous side
going forward and we'll certainly have to be vigilant against
them on Sunday.
"They're a big Club, who find themselves in a difficult
position just now, and the expectation on them to turn things
around will be huge. Forest will come to Upton Park looking for the
spark that might change things for them, and we have to guard
against that."
Mick Harford recently stepped in to take over the helm at the City
Ground following the departure of Joe Kinnear. However, despite
praising the work of Harford, Pards is not worried about the
possibility of encountering a resurgent Nottingham Forest on
Sunday.
"You meet teams at different times of the season," he
commented. "Sometimes it breaks for you sometimes it works
against you.
"Mick Harford is an excellent coach and I'm sure he'll
have his players motivated for the game. But they go into the game
with Andy Reid, a really important member of their squad, suspended
and that will certainly work in our favour.
"Adam Nowland is also doing well there and I'm sure
he'll want to put on an extra special performance on his return
to Upton Park.
"It should be a great game to watch, between two sides that
like to play good football. Hopefully, we can put on a good display
for the fans and take three points to kick-off a busy period of
games."
Of his own personnel, Pards has just two senior players on the
sidelines through injury - Don Hutchison (knee) and Jimmy Walker
(groin). Defender Christian Dailly - absent since September after a
knee operation - has returned to training this week and hopes to be
available before the New Year.
"It's great to have Christian back involved in
training," said Alan. "He's a natural leader and is a
great influence on the other players in the squad. He's working
hard on the training pitch now and will continue that work over
Christmas to get back as soon as he possibly can.
"Darren Powell has gone back to Crystal Palace, of course, as
Malky Mackay has now returned to full fitness and with Christian on
the way back our defensive options are looking solid once
again."
Defeated just twice at Upton Park all season, the Hammers go into
the Boxing Day clash with Forest with an enviable home record,
which must be retained as West Ham United look to mount a promotion
challenge.
"Our record has been very good this season," admitted
Alan, "and it will be very important to keep playing well and
securing good results at Upton Park into the New Year.
"We've beaten some good teams at home this season and
going into Sunday's game I think Forest will be more worried of
us than we are of them.
"There is a lot of expectation amongst the fans at Upton Park
and rightly so. We are determined to match that expectation with
results and we'll be looking to inject some more consistency
into our performances over the second half of the season to make
sure we are there challenging for promotion.
"The teams at the top have laid down the targets for us and
we've got some work to do to catch them. But we're capable
of doing it. We just need to concentrate on the next game, do all
we can to win it, and go from there."
Pards Feeling Festive For Forest
24th December 2004