HAVING witnessed his Hammers side give two of their best performances of the season during January to beat Ipswich Town and Norwich City, there is plenty of reason for Alan Pardew to be positive ahead of tomorrow's trip to Wolves.
However, with one of their worst displays also thrown in to the first month of 2005 - the 2-0 reverse at home to Sheffield United - Pards knows that an unbeaten run is becoming vital to the Hammers promotion chances.
"Squeezed around a very disappointing result against Sheffield United are probably two of our best performances of the season against Ipswich and Norwich," he said.
"That sums up where our problems have been this season. But there is a great deal we can draw from the two victories, as well as plenty we can learn from the defeat, and we go into the Wolves game off the back of a very good performance.
"Norwich are a Premiership side and have gained valuable top-flight experience since we played them last season. But we achieved a great result and as Nigel Worthington said thoroughly deserved to win the game. Joe Royle said the same at Ipswich, but in between those games we gave a very poor display that we aren't proud of.
"We're desperate for an unbeaten run and we need to focus on putting a solid string of displays together and pushing ourselves back among the automatic promotion chasers.
"But there is no point putting
ourselves under undue pressure by looking too far into the future.
It's important right now that we focus on just trying to get a
win in our next game."
Beating Wolves at Molineux is by no means an easy task. They have
lost just three times there this season and with new manager Glenn
Hoddle beginning to guide them from their slumber, Pards knows his
side will have to be at their best.
"Wolves are a much better side than their League position suggests," he admitted, "and it'll be a very tough game for us.
"Glenn is a very good manager and I'm sure he'll do a super job there. His assistant John Gorman was with me at Reading and Glenn would often come down and join in with us.
"He's got an extremely tough task there. Wolves have dropped out of the Premiership and he has taken over under similar circumstances to my own appointment here last season.
"It's a new challenge for Glenn at this level, but he is starting to turn things around for them and they put in a very good performance to beat Millwall in the FA Cup last weekend.
"We'll hopefully get some good support up there, just like we did against them in the FA Cup last season. Our allocation was bigger that day, but the support from our fans was tremendous.
"They are so important to us, home and away and having them behind us will only help the team over the second half of the season."
After a side missing several key players overcame Norwich, Alan faces several selection dilemmas. None more pressing than in goal, where Jimmy Walker staked a big claim for inclusion with a fine performance against the Canaries. Pards admitted that it is one of the nicer worries of management.
"It's a no lose situation for
me," he concluded. "Jim put in a great performance at
Norwich, but Steve is one of the best young goalkeepers in the
world and has done nothing wrong this season.
"I'm confident that whoever plays on Saturday will do a
very good job for the Club."