Glenn's Challenge

Glenn Roeder is backing Trevor Sinclair to increase his goal tally six fold before the end of the season.

The Hammers boss has an excellent working relationship with Trevor, despite his transfer request earlier in the year, and he says: "Just of late I have been very pleased with Trevor, as I have been with the rest of the team; he has been excellent all year, and as I often say to the media when I am asked, if you see him on the training ground you would never guess he is on the transfer list.

"But that is the sort of boy he is, and even though he is on the list he works incredibly hard, he loves his training, he has a good rapport with his team mates and I am very pleased with him.

"He trusts us and he knows, as we have a promise, that if an offer was to come in that was acceptable we would allow him to talk to another club - but that doesn't necessarily mean he would want to join them."

Glenn hails Trevor's goal against Derby as one of the best of the season and adds: "Normally I would have seen the video by now, but I have not had an opportunity today because it was a busy day in the office.

"But I saw the highlights on television and what came across was Trevor Sinclair's goal; he doesn't score too many tap-ins.

"They showed a collection of his goals on Sky and they were all fantastic goals, like the one last Boxing day against Charlton.

"It was great technique against Derby and I am sure there are more to come from Trevor between now and the end of the season.

"I think he is capable of getting five or six in a season now he has got the first one, and with 19 games to go I am sure he is capable of getting the other goals.

"I do like the balance we have got in midfield at the moment and, selfishly I suppose, I would really like him to stay - we will just have to wait and see."

Glenn does not want to disrupt a reshuffled midfield that now sees Trevor on the left hand side in a combination that has seen the Hammers unbeaten in the five games since its bold inception. Glenn is happy about the stability and says: "I think that is very important, not only to us but to any team; you need to have a settled formation where you can get to know each other's play and if things don't constantly change you have got a chance of doing that - and long may it continue."

Meanwhile, Glenn has responded to claims from the Derby camp that Benito Carbone was badly done to in being sent off for two bookable offfences against the Hammers.

Derby boss Colin Todd broke Premiership rules in not attending an after match press conference and incredibly sent one of his players, Daryll Powell, to do the talking instead.

He accused Tomas of "conning" the referee, but Glenn insists: "I do think it is possible to go down in the penalty box and it is not a penalty; I wouldn't want to get involved in 'was it a dive or wasn't it a dive?'

"The fact of the matter is, though, that after being booked I can't really see why Carbone, who is an excellent player, decided to make a challenge on Tomas in a non-dangerous area; it was a case of allowing Tomas to let the ball run out, us to have a goal kick, and get on with the game.

"I was surprised he made a lunge there; he has many qualities but obviously tackling is not one of them.

"Tomas is the sort of guy you wouldn't want to meet on a dark alley, he is a real tough man, and you can clearly see that the foot is raised and he brings Tomas Repka down, so I don't think Carbone should have too many complaints about that."

Meanwhile, the search for talent goes on, and Glenn says: "We never stop looking but the most important thing is to look for quality and keep our standard high - which is what we are looking to do."