Captain's Blog - 'We go again'

The 1-0 win at Stoke City last weekend put us in a fantastic position and it gave us a one-point cushion which is huge to us.

It was great to win and for us to keep a clean sheet. I had said in my blog on the day before the game that it was stressed to the boys how important a result was at the Britannia Stadium in the week leading up to the match and, that if we are to qualify for Europe, then we needed to turn up, keep strong in character and resilient in our play. We were all of those things.

We showed great character in the first half, passed the ball around well and it was a fantastic strike by Diego. In the second half, we showed our desire to see the game out and win it. The need to be positive was very much emphasised on everyone and it resulted in us getting a great win at a place where only three other teams have managed a victory.

We thank everyone who made the trip to Stoke last weekend. It was a huge following, everyone was very vocal and we managed to be well heard in the Britannia Stadium which is not easy. It made for a great atmosphere for us to play in front of. Obviously it was a contribution to our win and performance and it didn't go unnoticed.

It is a massive game on Saturday against Liverpool and we go into it looking for back to back wins after a fantastic result last week. We are aiming to upset Liverpool again, like we did up at Anfield earlier in the season, and put a huge dent in their title hopes. More importantly, it will give us some bonus points towards Europa League qualification.

But we know it is going to be a really tough game. Liverpool have a very talented squad and we welcome back Yossi Benayoun, who was a West Ham favourite with a lot of our fans.

With Manchester City away to Manchester United, Tottenham playing Everton and Fulham in a tough home match with Aston Villa, any points we can pick up this weekend will be huge for us, as many outside of the club, would not expect us to pick up anything.

All the teams around us will also be thinking if we can pick up points here, so can they in their equally tough matches. But we just have to worry about ourselves and our own performance, pick up our own points and hopefully send out a message to the rest that we are going to be hard to catch.

It is the second from last home game of the season so without a doubt as always, there will be a big atmosphere and thank you again in advance for your support.

Off the pitch this week, has seen Mister [the manager] and Jack Collison meet with some of our disabled supporters at an evening event arranged by the club. They took part in what I believe was a lively question and answer session before chatting to everyone afterwards.

As the games get counted down, we know there is still so much for us to be playing for and we go again on Saturday with the same attitude and desire and look to be stronger again in a bid to win the points and hopefully be another step close to that Europa qualification.

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Lucas Neill