West Ham United have rung in the New Year and Sam Allardyce is set to ring the changes for the visit of Coventry City to a packed Boleyn Ground on Monday.

The manager welcomes back captain Kevin Nolan, George McCartney, Julien Faubert and Jack Collison from suspension following the 2-1 defeat for an under-strength side at Derby County on New Year's Eve. Sam Baldock and Carlton Cole are also itching to step up from the subs bench.

Big Sam will have to consider whether to play Winston Reid and Henri Lansbury after they made long-awaited returns to the lineup on Saturday. Gary O'Neil is likely to be rested after his hour against Derby while goalscorer Frank Nouble played 90 minutes on his first Hammers run-out of the season.

Eight of the Hammers side that finished the game at the weekend were under 24, aside from Joey O'Brien (25), Carlton Cole (28) and Robert Green (31). Two of them, Dan Potts (17) and Rob Hall (18) are stars of the FA Youth Cup side still.

As such the return of Nolan, McCartney and Faubert will bring much needed experience to help turn around a run of three defeats in five games.

"We have four suspended players back and they will be needed for Monday," Big Sam said, having had to name five forwards on the bench at Pride Park. "We need to get back on winning ways against Coventry and try and get as many points out of the next five or six games that we possibly can.

"Saturday was a disappointing result. We had a horrific start when we didn't want it with a patched-up back four. It looked like we were very nervous and Derby took full advantage by scoring two.

"We put in a terrific effort to come back but we couldn't climb the mountain. A mad ten minutes was responsible for our demise."

The manager has challenged his players to start converting the chances they are making week in, week out with only Nolan, Baldock and Cole on target for the season-long targets expected. He praised the 20-year-old Nouble but said another striker was likely to be coming in.

"We have already started the process of bidding but without any success at the moment, either permanent or loan deals. The co-owners Mr Sullivan and Mr Gold have pressed the button on a lot of potential deals already.

"I can't be more pleased with the way they have supported me. We haven't managed to clinch one yet. More goals is what we are after. 

"The goals have dried up. I know we have Sam back and that should give us more goalscoring prowess. If there is a goalscorer out there then we would be interested as well as in other areas obviously."

Although reinforcements are coming, Big Sam believed were the injury situation to continue to clear and stay clear - only Abdoulaye Faye (calf), Matt Taylor (calf) and Guy Demel (thigh) remain on the casualty list - he would have enough in depth to cope with the rigours of the second half of the season.

"There is still a very good squad here that has been stretched to the very limit. We can't continue to be like that if we want to get to where we want to go. I am putting our bad run down to this."

The manager is focusing more on recruitment than any potential interest in his star men. "I am not worried about losing big names. While they are contracted to us, we will continue to say we want them to stay and see us back in the Barclays Premier League. We can't lose our best players.

"I always say to everyone, even if you get £15m it is not as much as the guaranteed £90m if you go back up."

Having O'Neil back involved after being out since April with a serious ankle injury was a major positive going into 2012.

"It is like having another new player in Gary, and it is great to see him back. It has been a long haul for him. Everyone was saying it could be 12 months before he played again so it looks like he is ahead from that point of view.

"I didn't want to play him longer than the hour we did because it would have been a massive effort for him to do that. He is a fit lad and will feel much better about himself now. There doesn't appear to be any problems with the ankle."

He like the manager is only looking forward now.

Certainly Big Sam was not interested that leaders Southampton lost last time out or that Middlesbrough had leapt a point above the Hammers into second.

"There is not much ground lost but going into December I think we were six points ahead of third and we wanted to maintain that throughout December and then keep on track. We are now four points behind our target of two points a game - that is the farthest we have been behind all season."

"I am optimistic for 2012. We have to get back on track and most of the reason would be to get the players in the squad fully fit and have a full squad to choose from and have the opportunity to pick the best eleven for each game rather than just who is available."