Luis Boa Morte has spoken of his excitement ahead of Gianfranco Zola getting down to business at Chadwell Heath this week.
Having enjoyed Zola's flamboyant style and attitude when playing, Boa Morte says that working with the Italian is something he and his team-mates are eagerly anticipating. Boa Morte said: "We are excited and looking to carry on the work we have done with Kevin with the new gaffer. He [Zola] is a young manager who I feel will bring a fresh and different mentality to our club.
"We are all looking forward to working with him because he did not stop playing that long ago and so that knowledge will be very good. For myself, I look forward to working with Gianfranco and improving my game with him. I believe very strongly he can be a very good manager for us."
Boa Morte was a bright performer during Saturday's narrow defeat at West Bromwich Albion and although the team were 'very disappointed' to lose a game they felt they could have won, he believes there are a lot of positives for the players to work on with the new manager this week.
Boa Morte said: "It was a great game of football [against West Bromwich Albion] and we left there very disappointed that we dropped the three points, because that is what we were pushing for. We were gutted to come home with nothing. They took the lead but we pretty much got back on level terms straight away, worked hard and turned the game around when we took the lead and we were really pleased with that."
The visitors fought back from conceding an early goal to take a 2-1 lead only to then have a penalty awarded against them when Robert Green was adjudged to have bought down an opponent in the area, although replays suggest he played the ball. "The penalty was given, which we felt was controversial, but we carried on looking to make the most of the many chances we were creating," said Boa Morte. "I had a chance and there were three or four other opportunities that the other boys had, but it wasn't to be and now we look forward to the Newcastle match."
Despite conceding a late goal to go down 3-2, the Portuguese is confident the team can bounce back immediately in the home match against Newcastle United this Saturday. Boa Morte said: "Anyone who competes in the Premier League week in, week out will tell you there is no easy game against anyone, but we are at home and we are determined to pick ourselves up immediately."
The attacker wanted to thank caretaker manager Kevin Keen for the hard work he put in with the players over the past week and said the team will look to take that into training under the new manager. "We all enjoyed working with Kevin, it was very good for all of us and we felt that although we lost, we took much of what we had done into the game and it was very positive," Boa Morte said.
"We passed the ball around well and created lots of chances, what we must do now is step up and make sure we put those other chances away this weekend. All the boys want to thank Kevin because we were really pleased with what he did for us and I think he was pleased too, with our work-rate and effort on the pitch."