Match preview v Birmingham City
Squad news: Alan Pardew has named an unchanged
20-man squad for the visit of Birmingham City tonight, as Hammers
attempt to secure a fifth successive Premiership victory and
seventh straight win in all competitions. Defender Danny Gabbidon
is included despite facing a late fitness test, while goalkeeper
Roy Carroll is still absent with a back injury.
Squad to face Birmingham City: Hislop, Bywater, Dailly, Scaloni,
Konchesky, Clarke, Gabbidon, Ferdinand, Collins, Mullins,
Reo-Coker, Fletcher, Newton, Etherington, Benayoun, Harewood,
Zamora, Sheringham, Ashton, Katan.
Birmingham, meanwhile, are set to be without at least six
first-team regulars due to injury and suspension. Defenders Matthew
Upson, Martin Taylor and Oliver Tebily are all ruled out through
injury, as are midfielders David Dunn, Muzzy Izzet and Neil
Kilkenny, while Emile Heskey and Damien Johnson serve the final
game of their respective suspensions. Steve Bruce is likely to pair
Chris Sutton and Mikael Forssell in attack, and former Hammer Stan
Lazaridis will also be hoping for a taste of the action.
Stat attack: A Hammers win tonight would take Alan
Pardew's men to 41 points after 26 games and signal our
best-ever points tally at this stage of the season in the
Premiership - the previous best being 39 during the 1997-98
campaign.
Three points would also equal our record of successive wins in the
Premiership - five in a row against Coventry City, Nottingham
Forest, Tottenham, Chelsea and Newcastle in February 1996. It would
also signal our seventh successive victory in all competitions - a
feat last achieved in the record-breaking 1985-86 season.
Tonight's game also marks Matthew Etherington's 100th
league appearance for the Hammers, while Marlon Harewood will be
dreaming of another hat-trick in front of the live Sky TV cameras
that would take him to 50 goals for the Club in all competitions.
Previous meetings: Birmingham City's visit
tonight is their first trip to Upton Park since October 2002, when
a double strike from Stern John secured a 2-1 victory in their
first-ever season in the Premiership. The campaign ended with the
bitter taste of relegation for Hammers, as a 2-2 draw in the return
fixture at St Andrews on the final day condemned us to the drop.
The 2002-03 clashes were the first league encounters between the
two teams for 10 years, when Hammers secured the 'double'
over the Blues with a 3-1 victory at home and a 2-1 win away during
our First Division promotion-winning campaign in 1992-93.
The only meeting during that 10-year gap was a League Cup fourth
round tie at St Andrews in November 1999, when goals from Steve
Lomas, Paul Kitson and Joe Cole - his first in senior football -
sealed a 3-2 victory.
Our all-time league record against Birmingham City at Upton Park
reads as follows: P38 W15 D9 L14 F71 A51
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