Matt's Grafting To Bring Results

MATTY Etherington said having a whole week to work on their game will have the Hammers even more determined to be firing on all cylinders when they travel to Manchester City at the weekend.

The midfielder made his first start of the season in the 2-0 defeat against Newcastle and said while the team was disappointed, everyone knows that if they can keep working it through, the good performances and the results will return.

He said:" When you look at the first half of the game (against Newcastle), no one was really out on top. We had a couple of chances, and maybe on another day, if they had gone in, who knows.

"But in the second half we know we were poor and we're disappointed at that. It seems to be one of those things at the moment, things are not functioning as well as they were this time last year, but I'm sure we can address all that in training and work hard and get back to what we were good at, there will be no problem about that."

Matty added: ""It happens to all sides, you go through phrases like this, where the team is not doing as well as you like, but you get on with it and make sure you work hard to put it right and that's what we'll do."

For Matty himself, he is pleased to be getting some match action under his belt after having to sit out the first three games of the season, before making two substitute appearances against Villa and Palermo and then starting against Newcastle.

He said: "I'm feeling really fit, really good. I'm getting there and with each game the more better and fitter you are. I'm feeling very good and now it's a case of playing more and more, so that I will be even stronger."

There is just under a week before the Hammers' next match away at Man City and Matty said everyone will make the most of it, with hard grafting on the training pitch.

He said: "We have no match until Saturday and yes, after a defeat you want the next game to come along straight away sometimes, because you want to put the other one behind you, but having the whole week, is also a good chance for all the lads to get together in training all week and put things right.

"That's what we'll be doing and you can be sure we'll be raring to go against Man City."