Green excited by away day

Robert Green is confident that West Ham United can build on their solid showing against Portsmouth when they make the long trip north to face Sunderland on Sunday.

The West Ham United No1 and the rest of the squad have been working hard at Chadwell Heath all week as they look to add to the encouraging signs shown in the last weekend's 0-0 draw. "We are looking on building on a couple of positive things and maybe going and playing away from home where the emphasis isn't on us to go and attack so much will help us," he said. "We can use our pace and play on the break and that may suit us a little bit more."

Green is under no illusions about the size of the challenge facing the team, though, as the hosts brought in several new players in the summer, including the familiar faces of Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney. He is optimistic, however, that the visitors can emerge with a result that could see them jump as high as tenth in the Barclay Premier League table.

He said: "It is a tough place to go. It is a team that had a lot of money invested in it and they will be looking to build on that. Playing up there is difficult but we are capable of holding our own by no stretch of the imagination."