Alan: It's A Big One

Alan Pardew sees the game against Wolves at the weekend as one of the most important of the season.

"This is without a doubt a game that we look upon during the season as a key game - and you can't look on it any other way," he says.

Paul Ince will be playing probably his last game at Upton Park and Alan says:

"He will be coming back to West Ham so he will be fired up.

"But they have other good senior players - though they have been unfortunate with injuries.

"One or two of those have come back, they are a massive club, and they are going to go close.

"Paul Ince is a fantastic footballer and is a personality, you can't take that away from him.

"But there is some history between him and West Ham and it will make for a lively occasion; Paul will probably enjoy it and rise to that.

"But it a big game anyway in the calendar this year and we are looking forward to it."

Alan hopes the players can encourage the fans and adds:

"We know the crowd can be a 12th man for us but they can be negative for us as well and they know that as well as the players do.

"It is important we start well and get them on our side.

"There are certainly a couple of our players that haven't seen our stadium jumping yet and when that atmosphere starts boiling it is a very intimidating place to play in, which makes it very helpful for the home players - and that is what we are hoping for.

"We can only think about ourselves and we want the place to be positive for West Ham - I think this is one of those games where it will be.

"There is not so much expectation on us to beat Wolves as there would be to perhaps beat Rotherham, in all honesty, so the fans will come and give us their full backing.

"They were magnificent at Derby and it was really important that they got behind us after we let them down at Forest; they did that - we couldn't ask for more and hopefully the home fans will be the same tomorrow.

"It would be unfair of me to comment on Wolves in too much detail because they are one of the few clubs I haven't seen this year in person.

"But we have had them scouted, they are a strong team now, and we are going to have to be on our mettle if we are going to get a result.

"I think Dave Jones' teams have always been strong and had a fair amount of flair in there.

"You know over the course of the season they are going to be right in there, there is no doubt about that."