David Moyes and his West Ham United team are keen to use last weekend’s Premier League victory over Everton as a building block on which to base future victories.
The Hammers’ first league success of 2023 came as welcome boost both to the team as a whole and Jarrod Bowen, whose double strike provided the platform for the 2-0 win at London Stadium.
Next, Moyes takes his side to EFL League One promotion hopefuls Derby County on Monday night for an Emirates FA Cup fourth-round tie and the boss explained that he is expecting a stern test from the Rams, who head into the contest on the back of a 14-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
The Hammers needed a last-minute equaliser and extra-time winner to get past sixth-tier Kidderminster Harriers at this stage of the competition a year ago and the Scot is taking absolutely nothing for granted against Paul Warne's team.
Here is what the manager had to say in his pre-match press conference…
You feel better after any win, I can tell you that.
I’ve got to say it (Everton) was an important win for us and one that we were pleased to get.
The idea is to go again, try to build momentum, try to pick up on a really good result. We’ve had some okay performances which didn’t lead to results and I thought last week was an okay performance that did lead to a result.
I’m looking to improve on both, I’m looking to improve on scoring more goals wherever we possibly can and building on the clean sheet too, which was really important for us.
The FA Cup is a great opportunity, but you still have to win the games, whoever is put in front of you.
It always sounds like [an opportunity, with Chelsea, Newcastle United, Crystal Palace, Brentford, Aston Villa and Wolverhampton Wanderers already out and Liverpool facing Brighton and Arsenal taking on Manchester City in the fourth round] until you have to go and play the opponents.
Last year we were given an unbelievable game at Kidderminster, where we came minutes from being knocked out, so anything can happen in this competition and we’ve seen that over the years.
We need to be our mettle, we need to play well. Derby are on a good run at the moment, they are a football club that is Premier League in stature and size, so we go there and will give them all the respect we can and hopefully go through to the next round. But they’ll be thinking the same.
I’ve been on the other side, when I was at Preston and we played Arsenal, who were the champions at that time [in January 1999].
We were 2-0 up at one point and ended up losing 4-2 unfortunately, but it was an incredible game. We have games in this competition where [shocks] do happen.
We have to be at our best to get through, but yes, I do think the competition could open up. You mentioned a few teams who have been knocked out already, but always it is on the draw. Everybody wants to win the cup, everyone wants to get to the final, there’s no doubt about that, but the draws sometimes can go against you, or sometimes you can play badly and get knocked out.
It would be huge to win a trophy and it’s something I try to do every year.
I don’t get the bit that you hear that because you changed the team or changed a few players that means you don’t want to win a trophy. People who think that way are completely naïve, as managers we all want to win a trophy.
We also have squads of players that we need to look after, so there are management issues behind the scenes that have to be looked at, and there are also times where you look at it and maybe want to try something else.
I’d like to say yes, 43 years is too long to go without a trophy, but there are other clubs who are probably in a similar situation.
What we’ve had in football is a monopoly of a few teams who have won this competition and the Premier League, for example.
People will pull out the Wigan Athletics, who in recent times have won the FA Cup, but ultimately what tends to happen is that the best sides in the country do win it.
So we have to go out there and prove that we are one of the best sides in the country and try to win the trophy.
I don’t think there will be players either coming here or leaving [in the last few days of the transfer window].
We’ve brought in the players we did in the summer and because of the way things were we decided to bring in Danny Ings last week.
So I think we’ve done the majority of what we can do, but I wouldn’t want to sit here and say we won’t be doing any other business, or nobody might leave. The truth is, I don’t really know. If I had something lined up right now to come in or go, there’s none of that in the pipeline at the moment, but with four or five days to go, who knows what might happen?
Unfortunately Danny [Ings] has picked up an injury which was in the first 15 or 20 seconds [after he came on for his debut against Everton], and we don’t think it’s that bad.
He’d have been cup-tied this weekend anyway, so we have a little bit of grace with that and hopefully he’s not going to miss too much.
He’s had an injection in his knee and hopefully we will get himself ready to get back and ready to go quite quickly.
The squad is good, I’m really pleased that we got a great boost from the win against Everton last week.
I’m seeing it in training – I’m definitely seeing an improvement in the spirits and all the good things that you would hope.
We’ll go to Derby with a strong squad to try and go through in the cup, but we are also aware that Derby are on a good run.
They’ve had big problems over four or five years now and look as if they are just beginning to get themselves back together again now.
[What happened at] Kidderminster wouldn’t make me less complacent because I’m always wary about it.
I got brought up watching Ronnie Radford’s goal for Hereford against Newcastle and I have those memories of the shock that felt like at the time.
I’m not surprised when you see teams have great wins in the cup and I’m sure you can go back and name quite a few.
