It has certainly been a rollercoaster of a week for West Ham United, starting with the high of the semi-final win on Sunday and ending with the news today that Hayden Mullins will definitely be missing the FA Cup final as his red card against Liverpool has been upheld.
However, Alan Pardew admits that, now the decision has been
made, it is time to move on and focus on the job in hand - starting
with Monday night's trip to relegation strugglers West Bromwich
Albion.
"It has certainly been a strange week," says Pards.
"We had the obvious jubilation of Sunday, then the game on
Wednesday which I thought was a great match, but one that was
overshadowed by the incident with Hayden, so it's been an up
and a down really.
"Now that the decision has been made to uphold the red card,
obviously everyone's hearts go out to Hayden and his family and
he will be a big loss, but we have to accept the decision, move on
and prepare for our next game against West Brom."
Monday's trip to the Hawthorns for our final away game of the
season has a huge bearing on the relegation battle at the bottom of
the Premiership and the Hammers boss knows his team must put on a
good performance.
"We realise what a big game this is for West Brom in terms of
their relegation battle and of course how it affects the other
teams down there like Birmingham and Portsmouth, so we know we have
to produce a very good display."
And anyone concerned the Hammers may be fielding a weakened team on
Monday need not be worried because, as far as Pards is concerned,
preparations for the Cup final in a fortnight begin here and now.
He says: "In an ideal scenario I would be fielding my Cup
final team in these last two league games but I do have some
problems at the moment with injuries to key players so that may not
necessarily be possible, in which case we will just put out our
strongest team possible.
Now we know we will be without Hayden, we have to look at different
options there but at the moment we are also without Konchesky
(groin), Gabbidon (back), Collins (Groin), and Ashton (groin), so
those players may well have to be rested on Monday. This does
provide a chance to look at my players who I know will want to give
me food for thought when it comes to picking that final team for
Cardiff."
Finally, our FA Cup semi-final opponents Middlesbrough once
again staged a dramatic comeback in their UEFA Cup campaign to beat
Steaua Bucherest 4-3 last night and book themselves a place in the
final, and Pards was delighted with their result, not just for
English football but because it highlighted how big a win it was
for Hammers on Sunday against Steve McClaren's team.
"When people said after the game on Sunday that we beat
Middlesbrough because they were tired I thought that was a bit of
an injustice to us.," he says.
"Our second-half performance was put down to Middlesbrough
being jaded rather than because we stepped up a gear but last night
they proved they are not a tired team at all, they still have a lot
in their locker and they are a very good team so I am very proud
that we can now say we beat the UEFA Cup finalists."
By Miranda Nagalingam