Diarra targeting home debut

Alou Diarra was hoping for a further taste of first-team action after making his West Ham United debut against Swansea City on Saturday.

The France international is expected to feature again when the Hammers host Crewe Alexandra in the Capital One Cup second round on Tuesday evening as Sam Allardyce looks set to give some of his new recruits their full Boleyn Ground debuts. Diarra is likely to be joined by the likes of Modibo Maiga and Stephen Henderson in the starting XI and the combative midfielder is hoping to catch his manager's eye in the 7.45pm kick-off.

"I was pleased when the manager said I was coming on against Swansea and it was good to get on the pitch. But it was a shame that it was a game that we lost and we are disappointed with that and how we lost it. Swansea were good but we know we can do better.

"We have a big chance to put this out of our minds quickly with the game against Crewe on Tuesday, so we want to try and win that game and then kick on again from there."

Although the new No23 is not planning on being on the losing side too often, lessons can always be learned when things go wrong. After Saturday's defeat in Wales, Diarra was impressed with the determination of his new team-mates to put things right.

"We have the cup game on Tuesday, so we can play again soon. We also had training yesterday and we were able to look at what we didn't do right and improve these things. We can add that to what we are doing well.

"There is a long season ahead and we have many games. We made a good start and so we look to get back to winning ways and for all of us to work hard.

"I am enjoying it here, everyone has been good to me and the club is a good place. I am focusing on working in training and playing as well as I can."

Tickets for tonight's game will be available on the gate. For more information, click here. West Ham TV will also have live audio commentary of the game for those that cannot make it - for more information on that, click here.