It simply has to be a tale of two Cities when West Ham
United head to St Andrews on Saturday.
Following the opening day defeat against Manchester City, Alan
Curbishley insists that his side cannot afford a repeat performance
at Birmingham City.
"We've left everyone flat," observed a dejected Curbs
after seeing Rolando Bianchi and Geovanni get Sven-Goran
Eriksson's reign off to a winning start.
"The fans deserve better than that and we certainly
can't carry on like this. It's a massive disappointment to
say the least and now we've got to go and play a lot better at
Birmingham.
"Unfortunately, we didn't show any of the things that
we've been working upon in pre-season and we looked laboured
and tentative and didn't put Manchester City under any
pressure.
"It's certainly given us something to think about. When I
looked at the statistics after our pre-season win at Norwich City
11 days ago, they were the second best since I've been at the
Club but we started off poorly and just got worse as the game went
on.
"Robert Green was the only one who came out with any real
credit and the rest of the players have got to look at themselves
because we just couldn't string two or three passes together.
"While Manchester City started off well, we had nothing there.
They came here with one or two players whom we weren't too sure
about but, having said that, we still knew the shape and system
that they would play.
"They started much better, their passing was miles in front of
ours and they were more dangerous than us, too.
"City got their goal during the first 20 minutes and, after
that, we were just chasing the game which was very difficult for
us. We needed a bit of a lift but we just couldn't drag one up
from anywhere.
"After making a couple of changes at half-time, I felt that we
looked like we were going to get something during the first 15
minutes of the second half. I apologised to one or two for playing
them out of position but we really needed to do that to try and get
back into the game.
"In the end, though, it just wasn't to be and it proved to
be a classic away game from City's viewpoint. They scored
within 20 minutes and, after never looking like we would ever break
them down, they hit us on the break to finish it all off
comfortably.
"Sven can be pleased with his start back in the Premier
League," concluded Curbs clearly hoping that he can now bring
some smiles back to the East End at the second attempt. "The
crowd were at full throttle but it turned out to be a massively
disappointing game for the players, the fans and everybody
connected with the club.
"It's only come after our first game, though, and now
we've just got to get on with it and look forward to putting
things right next week."