Pards Looking To Boost Squad

ALAN Pardew is looking to add at least one player to the Hammers squad in the next two weeks.

However, with senior stars like Steve Lomas, Matty Etherington and Sergei Rebrov all back in training this week, the Hammers boss is relishing a selection headache for this weekend's Championship clash with Plymouth.

"We're in better shape than we were last week," admitted Pards, "although the loss of Luke Chadwick with a torn hamstring is a blow.

"He's looking at least four weeks out, but it's good to have Steve Lomas back with a full week's training under his belt and also Sergei and Matty back in training as well.

"The squad could do with a boost and I've got one or two players in mind to try and bring in.

"But at my last club we had to bring a player in quickly because of an emergency who wasn't eligible to play in the Play-off Final, and that's a situation we obviously want to avoid. As manager I've got to think about and cover for every eventuality and make sure we've got a full quota of players available right up to the end of the season.

"We've got a busy week ahead of us next week with a trip to Gillingham on Tuesday and then Leeds on Saturday. Hopefully, we'll have a productive week next week and then I'll be in a position to bring in one or two players. That will then be the squad which will take us into the final push for promotion."

In the past couple of weeks, Pards has talked about strengthening his defensive options, particularly with Christian Dailly still four weeks away from fitness with a thigh injury.

However, the Hammers boss praised the solid performances of his rearguard in recent weeks.

"The back four have done really well in the last three games," he said, "and we've got some stability in there now, which we've been missing for most of this season.

"It's going to be important that we keep things tight at the back as we go into the run-in and hopefully we'll be able to keep a fairly settled line-up.

"We'll probably wait until after the Leeds game, and then look to bring somebody in on loan."