Alan Curbishley believes that the battle for Premiership
survival is now very much alive as the season enters its final six
weeks.
With Hammers now just five points from the safe refuge of 17th
place, there are a few clubs starting to look anxiously over their
shoulders, and the Hammers boss is hoping to take full advantage of
the situation.
"We've been in the bottom three since I've been here,
whereas one or two haven't felt that pressure and, perhaps,
they'll start going through that now," suggests Curbs.
"As far as we're concerned, we've got ourselves
back on track and, although we can't even start looking back
thinking about what might have been if we'd held on against
Spurs, we've now just got to keep going and try to win the
majority of our remaining seven games.
"And although one or two of them can take the shine off our
own performances, we can also start looking at other results, too.
Wigan Athletic and Sheffield United have been dragged into it a bit
now and with both Charlton Athletic and ourselves chasing that
fourth from bottom spot, it's all got a little bit closer.
"Charlton have still got to play some of the teams around us,
while we've also got to go to Sheffield United and Wigan, too.
Coming into the Middlesbrough game, I knew that we had to get three
points and, who knows, maybe we can also win one or two matches
that nobody is expecting us to?
"It could well be an exciting end to the season," adds
Curbs, ahead of a vital visit to Bramall Lane in a fortnight's
time, a fixture sandwiched between Saturday's tricky trip to
Arsenal and the visit of champions Chelsea. "That's two
results on the spin now, can we make it a third?"