Tony Gale believes West Ham have just got to dig deep to
find the sort of form that saw them start last season with a real
bang and one which will see them climbing the table again.
A trip to the City of Manchester Stadium to face Stuart
Pearce's side awaits the Hammers this Saturday, and Tony
believes that with City in not so good form themselves and being
dumped out of the Carling Cup in midweek, there is a chance to
bring some points back to London.
" It's a big game for us, also tough, but we can take
great heart from the way we turned them over at their place in the
FA Cup quarter final last season.
"I also feel perhaps, we are meeting them at a time when they
are not in such good form, and I really believe we can take
advantage of that."
Tony feels that while the 1-0 defeat against Palermo last week in
the UEFA Cup was a disappointing result the Hammers still gave a
good account of themselves in their first leg European tie and that
there is still a lot to play for. Against Newcastle, he thought the
team just could not produce the sort of performance that have seen
them build up such a strong home record.
"We know we didn't play like we can against Newcastle. Out
of the last two matches we have played I think this would have been
the one that Alan Pardew would have been most disappointed at.
"We just couldn't get going like we know we can, could not
get the exciting play that we always displayed at home last season
and only had a few isolated chances to show for our efforts.
"Alan is working out how to fit in the two new boys in, but this should turn out to be a pleasing problem and it is up to us to find the sort of form that we had this time last year. We have got it, it's about putting it in our play once again. That was one of our strengths last year, how quick we were out of the blocks, so we need to start doing that again, especially at home.
"Obviously this season, there are not as many secrets about us
as such, other teams know more about the way we play, but it's
up to us to raise our game again to another level and pull out some
tricks we still have up our sleeves and we can do that."
A good result on Saturday will boost the Hammers before they travel
to Sicily for the return leg against Palermo. Reflecting on the
first leg tie at Upton Park Tony said,
"I thought it was a really good game of football. I didn't
have to work that night, so watched the match purely as a fan and
can honestly say I really enjoyed it, apart from the result of
course.
"I think the game for us hinged on the action just before the
break, when Carlos Tevez just missed that chance from a Bobby
Zamora cross. You could say Palermo put their best chance away and
we didn't.
"They tried some of their little tricks that European sides
have and that may have stopped us a bit from going up stream as
much as we would have liked, but I thought we did well considering
it was the full debuts for Tevez and Javier Mascherano and the
first bit of European action for most of our boys.
"And I certainly don't think the tie is over by any means
and that is the attitude the boys should take out there. Palermo
showed they are a very good side, but not a top quality side.
"Of course it's going to be tough, away from home as well,
but I think we still have a good chance, I really do. And from
speaking to some of our supporters after the game last Thursday
night, many of them are looking forward to going out there to cheer
on the boys and also feel it's definitely not over. So I'm
sure the boys will be working hard to put in a performance for them
and hopefully get a good result."
For now though the focus is on the Man City clash and Tony said
that if Hammers can get off to a good, steady start, then they can
use that confidence to break City down early.
"We need to really stay in the game for the first 20 minutes
to half hour and apply the pressure, then their crowd will get on
their backs and we can feed from that hopefully and go on to take
the game."