Sam Allardyce is expecting a tough match when West Ham United visit Blackpool on Tuesday evening.

The Hammers manager has been keeping a close eye on Ian Holloway's side in recent weeks and believes the strength of their squad will provide a real test to his Hammers side. Big Sam will have to shuffle his pack with both Kevin Nolan and Matt Taylor suspended with Nicky Maynard is among those waiting in the wings to come in.

Sam, you have two players suspended. Will that be a problem on Tuesday?

SA: Hopefully not, we've got a very good squad here. It's disappointing that they got the bans and we have had to suffer without them. The two boys should be very grateful that the club managed to turn those games around and get two fantastic results having played with ten men for so long.

It could've been very harmful but we managed to get four points out of two games and that looked virtually impossible given that the red cards occurred so early on in the matches. I've told the players that I don't want any more sending offs of that nature from now until the end of the season. They must keep a level head, we can't afford to lose players and cannot keep winning with ten.

What do you make of Blackpool and Ian Holloway?

SA: They stuck with a man that was working with the smallest budget in the Premier League, who made millions for the football club. Ian has overcome his disappointment, gone back into the market and has formed a very strong squad in terms of strength in depth.

I've watched their last two games- and I'm not sure what their strongest side is. They played two different teams in their recent league and cup games and beat Sheffield Wednesday comfortably but found it difficult to recover from a poor start against Everton on Saturday. They have a got a very strong squad and as always it is going to be a very tough game. One concern of mine is Blackpool's pitch.

Will the pitch have an impact on the game?

SA: It's a difficult surface and I think both teams could struggle to play the football we want to play. I watched their last game against Portsmouth and the surface has suffered. It cut up badly and the ball wasn't running true. It looks like a tough surface to play on which is why on Tuesday night we must be at our best in order to get the right result.

Ravel made his first appearance for the development squad on Friday. Might we see him in the first-team soon?

SA: Maybe a while yet, he's lacking in first-team experience at the moment and our position with the necessity to gain automatice promotion means it's a difficult place to break in to. We have a wealth of top quality experienced players already available. Ravel will have to play a patient game and wait until it's the right time for us and him.