ALAN Pardew insists his side will not be affected by their FA
Cup defeat at Bramall Lane, after the Hammers boss watched a
spirited performance unravel with a 3-1 defeat on penalties to
Sheffield United.
With 200 minutes of football over two matches still not able to
separate these two evenly matched teams, the Fourth Round tie went
to penalties.
Unfortunately, it was the Hammers who couldn't find their
shooting boots, missing through Teddy Sheringham Marlon Harewood
and Carl Fletcher to crash out of the competition.
It now means Alan Pardew's men will return to League duty
sooner than hoped when they take on Plymouth at Upton Park on
Saturday, where they will be hoping to build on the 1-0 win over
Cardiff City in their last Championship outing.
"Our focus now is the League," insisted Pards, "and
we've got to put together a run of results between now and the
end of the season to secure not just a Play-off place but the
promotion that everyone is chasing.
"Getting to the Premiership is our main goal and that's
what we'll be concentrating on from now on. Of course, we
wanted to do well in the FA Cup and it's a blow to be out of
the competition because we wanted to progress and were desperate to
go and play at Highbury.
"But that's all history now. I don't think this result
will have a negative effect on our mentality for the League.
We've got a very important home game against Plymouth on
Saturday where we need to get another win under our belts to keep
moving forward.
"We had a very good win over Cardiff in our last League game
that's put us back in touch with the promotion places and this
week we'll be looking to put the FA Cup disappointment behind
us and concentrate on building a good run in the Championship.
"We're looking forward to the League programme now and
we've got to make sure that we do what's required of us to
win promotion."
Pards was gamely excepting of the penalty shoot-out defeat to the
Blades, but admitted his side should have killed the home side off
after they were reduced to 10 men following the sending off of
Chris Morgan in the 63rd minute.
"If it's tied after extra-time you go to penalties,"
he mused. "Those are the rules and that's just something
we have to except. Missing the first penalty was definitely a blow
for us and their goalkeeper was top notch in that spell and made a
great save.
"Sheffield United really came out of the blocks well and we
had to defend excellently in the first-half to make sure we
didn't concede a second goal.
"But we came back at them in the second-half and really stated
to play. We put them under enormous pressure and I thought
deservedly got back into the game with the penalty.
"We were in the driving seat once their man had been sent-off
and it's frustrating that we didn't go on and win the game
from there.
"I said before that they're a tough defensive side, and
they proved that. We're disappointed that we didn't create
more and cause them more problems. We should have done better than
we did when they went down to 10 men, but there were issues that
were hindering us.
"We lost Luke Chadwick after quarter of an hour, which meant
we lost the natural width in the side. The availability of players
meant we couldn't change things to give us more width and that
made breaking them down and exploiting the extra man all the more
difficult."
Hammers were again backed by a brilliant travelling contingent, and
Pards thanked the fans for their support on a freezing Sunday
evening in Sheffield.
"Our travelling fans were brilliant," he said, "and
we couldn't have asked for more from them. We're just
disappointed that we couldn't give them the trip to Highbury
that we were all hoping for.
"But it's back to the League this week and we'll need
their support again on Saturday for a vital game when we hope to
put ourselves right back into promotion contention."
Pards Looks To The League
14th February 2005