Hello everyone,
I was really happy to make my return to the first team in our win over Hull City on Wednesday night, even if I did end the evening with a black eye!
I clashed heads with Shane Long, but that is just part and parcel of the game, though - I'd take a broken bone if it meant we got the three points!
We're three points closer to the target we need to stay up. It was a scruffy win, but a win is a win at this stage of the season. It was a massive three points for us.
I wasn't sure what was going on, but Ginge signalled to the bench that he had to come off. I wasn't pleased in one way because it's disappointing that we lost a player who has been superb of late, but it gave me the opportunity to play and we won the game, so I am happy in that respect.
It had been a while since my last game at home to Newcastle in January, which seemed like an age away. It is always good to be involved and it is tough when you are not.
I have been left out of the matchday squad a few times which is tough to take, but I have been given the chance to come here and I am still pleased that I did. West Ham is a great Club and the boys have accepted me well and I love it here.
I have this little beauty to remember Wednesday's win by!
I would certainly love to stay and performances like that against Hull will hopefully stick in the manager's mind and we will see what happens.
We were put under a bit of pressure by Hull, despite them going down to ten men, but I thought we handled them well and restricted them to a few pot shots and crosses into our box. Adrian certainly didn't have to make many saves.
Sometimes you just have to defend and I thought we did that and it was pleasing to get that last-ditch tackle in on David Meyler in the second half.
It reminded me of the Manchester City game when Yaya Toure was running at me and he scored, so it was nice to redeem myself and make a tackle!
I understand why some people think we should have dominated the game when they had their goalkeeper sent off and went down to ten men, but I sometimes think it is because you are expected to press them and keep the ball, everyone gets in their head, especially after going 1-0 up, that is going to be an easy night.
That is very often not the case. We do it in training - 10v8, 10v9, 11v8 - and more often than not the eight or nine do well, so it is not as easy as everyone thinks. They were 1-0 down and had to push, but I thought we defended well with our two banks of four and we were tough to get played through.
We got the win and now we can move on to the next one at Sunderland on Monday evening.
Sunderland is another big game. The boys and the coaching staff and the manager have been saying to each other that these two games against Hull and Sunderland will push us over the line if we can win them both.
I personally think 37 points will be enough. It has been a funny season, but I certainly can't see any of the bottom three getting to anywhere near to 37, to be honest.
We will just take each game as it comes and it starts again now with Sunderland.
Have a good weekend and, for those of you travelling up to the Stadium of Light on Monday, have a safe trip.
Roger