Cup Courage

ALAN Pardew praised the first-half performance of his Hammers against Sheffield United, and called for the team to apply their good work in the opening 45 minutes of the 1-1 draw on a more consistent basis.

A superb volley from Marlon Harewood put West Ham 1-0 up in their FA Cup Fourth Round clash with the Blades, but a strong second-half showing from the visitors, capped by a Phil Jagielka goal, forced a replay at Bramall Lane.

"Marlon scored a great goal," enthused Pards, "and I think we deserved the lead at half-time after our performance in the first period.

"Sheffield United are a very good defensive side. They limit chances, sit deep and try and break play up. There difficult to play against, but we caused them a lot of problems in the first-half.

"Teddy Sheringham and Marlon looked particularly dangerous and combined very well for the goal. We were missing some width in the team with Matty Etherington and Gavin Williams out, so we played a lot into the front two.

"Teddy's involvement was important. Unfortunately he got tired towards the end and that started to reflect in our performance in the second-half.

"We're disappointed that after taking the lead and playing well we didn't go on to win the tie. But we're in the hat for the Fifth Round, we'll go to Bramall Lane confident having won there already this season and now our focus will return to the League with a very important game at home to Cardiff coming up this weekend."

There was a touch of controversy to Sheffield United's second-half equaliser, when Jagielka's header was clawed off the line by Stephen Bywater, only for the linesman to rule that the ball had crossed the line. However, Pards was phlegmatic about the decision, insisting that the Hammers should have defended the situation better.

"The linesman gave the goal and there isn't much we can do about that," he said. "I haven't seen a replay of the incident, but we can't reverse it now and we just need to move on.

"We were disappointed with the goal and should have defended the cross a lot better. We knew that they would be a threat from those sort of positions and it was important for us to stop crosses swinging across our box.

"We did that very well for most of the game, unfortunately the one that did get through turned out to be the one they scored from.

"But I was pleased with the way we approached the game in the first-half. We got about them, put in a few big tackles early on, which fired up the crowd, and really showed how much we wanted it.

"We showed character and maturity all through the team and we need to do the same again next week in what will be a great clash against Cardiff at Upton Park."

Pards also leapt to the defence of 17-year-old midfielder Mark Noble, who his opposite number Neil Warnock insisted should have been sent off for a tackle on Sheffield United's Nick Montgomery.

"Mark is a young lad who really wants to do well for the Club," he said. "He's 100 per cent committed and wants to prove himself at this level. It was a tough tackle, he got a booking for it, but I strongly disagree with the view that he should have been sent off.

"It was a tough game, there was plenty of gamesmanship going on and lots of scraps and niggles. There's not an ounce of malice in Mark and there's no way he'd go in deliberately to hurt another player."

Alan Pardew's squad now prepare to exact revenge on Cardiff at Upton Park this Sunday, after the Welshman beat the Hammers 4-1 at Ninian Park.

"Our priority is the League," he insisted. "We need a good performance, but there's still plenty of belief within the squad and it's important we show that on Sunday and put a win on the board that we can build on in the coming weeks."