Following West Ham’s embarrassing result and performance in the FA Cup against Nottingham Forest, Sam Allardyce’s weekly ‘Manager’s Reaction’ email may be hard to stomach for a few:
“We were having our best spell attacking-wise against Nottingham Forest, but you have to be careful about it because if you don’t score and take full advantage at that time you have to make sure you don’t leave the back door open. I think it happens at first-team level sometimes and it happened on Sunday.
I thought everybody stuck to their task and tried to play to their best and put a huge amount of effort in. We all know how many young players we had out on the field, which gave Forest an advantage as they played their Championship side that played week-in and week-out.
The big picture is that my hands were tied in the selection process regarding who I could pick. It would have been impossible to play the same 14 players on Sunday, on Wednesday at Manchester City and next Saturday at Cardiff, because that would have caused us to get more injuries than we have already got.
I still needed to use Ravel Morrison, Modibo Maiga and Matt Jarvis and they played the whole game, while I brought Stewart Downing and Alou Diarra off as I need them as well. We also have the lads at home who are fit and they will all get themselves ready and prepare for te big, big game at Manchester City on Wednesday. We’re still looking in the market to sign more players if we can. It’s a critical situation at the moment and there is nobody aware of it more than me, how desperate our situation has become over the last few weeks.
With our position in the league, we have all got to stick together and get people back in the side with the experience and the quality and determination I know they have got to secure our Premier League status and get to the Capital One Cup final.”
