Marlon: We Must Do More

Marlon Harewood is looking forward to facing his old Nottingham Forest colleagues on Sunday - if he can overcome a slight injury - while Alan Pardew is looking for more from all of his players. at Nottingham Forest.

"He has got a slight twinge," says Alan Pardrew, "but we think he will be okay."

Marlon himself, a £500,000 signing from Forest recently, is determined to be passed fit and says:

"It will be quite special to see the lads again, they are a great team."

He admits he does not know what sort of response he will get from his former supporters - Forest is the only club Marlon had before moving to east London - and he adds:

"I don't know how they will be but they were good to me when I was there so I would like to have that reception when I play.

"But you don't think about it, you just get on with your game; I am not there for the fans, I am there just for West Ham.

"I would be glad to get a goal in any game but to do so against Forest would be a special bonus.

"But it is a team effort and if anyone scores it means we are doing well."

There is no disguising Marlon's disappointment at the defeat against Ipswich after he provided an 'assist' for Jermain Defoe to score the opener in a 2-1 defeat.

"It was a good throw from Jamo and I had to take it on and put it in the box for Jermain," he says.

"But we have dropped a vital three points; we need to win every game but that was a major setback which we have to put right on Sunday against Forest.

"We have got to start winning games; it is very frustrating because as a team we know we can beat teams and when you are in the dressing room after a defeat it is disappointing.

"We had to go home, think about what happened and what we had done wrong, and look to put it right."

Marlon expects a tight game against his former side and, knowing the division as he does, and referring to what went wrong against Ipswich, his theory for success is simple.

"You have got to keep your 1-0 leads - that's how it goes in this division."

Alan admits he might be looking at changes in the new year but has to stick with what he has got for the trip to Nottingham.

"Our players are paid the most in this division by a country mile, don't worry about that, and it is up to them and me to get a result in the next couple of games.

"But no one is playing well enough and we're leaving ourselves with an awful lot to do - we need to get on a run."

"I was brought here to win promotion as quickly as possible but that seems to be proving more difficult than either I or the board imagined; I don't know how long I have been here but it feels like a lifetime and we need to find more aptitude if we are going to go up.

"We have some great individuals here but we are a long way off having the right kind of spirit to claw games back; we are falling way behind the front-runners and it is just not acceptable.

"The team is too quiet for my liking, and no one is playing well enough - I include Jermain Defoe in that - to get away from here in January.

"We've played worse than we did against Ipswich but when you take the lead at home you expect to go up a level; we didn't do that - we went backwards.

"I was searching for desire but it never arrived and we are falling way behind now.

"When you look at the fans at West Ham they fill the place up and they just don't deserve what we are giving them right now.

"Yes, we have had injuries and costly suspensions but I don't intend to start using that as an excuse - I have to look now at bringing in some characters to pull this side together.

"We are coming to the transfer window and the obvious questions will be thrown at me but in some way I am tied.

"We have been relegated and we will need to address the wage bill unless we bounce straight back up."