Nigel: We Could Flourish

Nigel Reo-Coker feels that if West Ham do go up they will be more than able to flourish in the top flight.

He feels the players will be suited to life in the upper tier of English football, where the action is less hurly burly and more about finesse.

He points to the performance midweek as proof of his theory and explains:

"We go out there and play for our pride; as a team we worked hard on Wednesday and unfortunately it wasn't our day.

"But it was a good test for us and an opportunity to see how we would do if we got promoted, we are very proud, and we can take a lot of positives from that game.

"I have always said to people we are a lot better suited to the Premier League than we are to the Championship.

"Hopefully we will be playing the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester United every week next season - I think we would acquit ourselves a lot better in the Premiership than the Championship."

Nigel spent most of the game in a less orthodox position than he has been used to and he says:

"It was more of an attacking role, starting higher up the pitch, which I am not really used to - it is the first time I have played there, but it had to be done.

"It was to support the striker, help try and pack the midfield, and retain possession higher up the field - to hold it up well and bring other people in to play.

"It is part of growing up to play different positions and learn my trade, so to speak - it was enjoyable."

Nigel feels the West Ham supporters made a major contribution to the occasion in west London and adds:

"It was a fantastic atmosphere and the West Ham fans were great - they supported us throughout the whole 90 minutes and it was absolutely tremendous."

Nigel certainly wasn't overawed by the reputations of the Chelsea players on Wednesday and he says:

"Those sorts of things never cross my mind, and at the end of the day it is another match - I couldn't care who I was playing up against.

"You respect the players and what they have achieved in their career so far - but there is only so much respect you should show someone.

"I hope we will take that on board with us, and forget about Chelsea now - that game is done and it is back to reality and the Championship now.

"We need to play well and continue our form; it is a good thing we played well against Stoke and Gillingham and we can take positives from those games, not just midweek.

"We had nothing to lose and we have to take positives from the game; we have to take that attitude into our league games and if we do that there is no stopping us.

"The boys are going into Saturday with loads of confidence and we have a lot of players to come back which can only boost us.

"Now it will be interesting to see what changes the manager makes."