KUMB.com
Filed: Sunday, 11th March 2012
By: Staff Writer
Dean Saunders reflects on a game from which his Doncaster team could have
taken all three points - yet still tipped West Ham for promotion. His full
press-conference, exclusively, follows...
Dean: you should have won it?
Yeah, we should have. It's been our Achilles Heel really, we've missed too
many chances - we should have won the last nine games, we've just missed too
many chances.
I thought we were going to get battered there in the first ten minutes. They
started really well, we didn't start properly. Carlton Cole was causing us
all sorts of problems with his strength in the air and Nolan was playing
just behind him and he was causing us a problem as the ball kept squirting
through to him. So we changed the shape of the team after 10/15 minutes and
we looked better straight away.
We got a draw, but Giles Barnes had a free header, [Mamadou] Bagayoko's
missed an open goal with a header and then the goalkeeper makes an
unbelievable save at the end when I thought we'd won it. I can't complain
[though], I thought we played some great football. They're obviously a good
team, I think they're going to get promoted.
That will seem like a bad result to them but it's not really when you're
trying to get promotion. They won't lose many games. They can't have it all
ways [with] every team that's playing against them; we're fighting for our
lives. There's 30-odd thousand people there watching the game and they all
think you're going to win but it's not easy. We've got a group of players
there who are fighting for their careers, to stay in the league.
El Hadji Diouf is never going to win too many popularity competitions but he
was man of the match by a country mile today, wasn't he?
Yeah, well he's a class player. I thought [James] Coppinger, Pascal
Chimbonda and Diouf down the right-hand side second half [were excellent];
some of the one-touch football they played was just class. Pascal got clear
there once and I thought "goal" [but] the 'keeper makes a brilliant save.
But he's doing well. Was he involved in the goal?
Yes...
Yeah... I know Coppinger bundled it over the line. That's probably 11
assists and six goals he's got, I think - so he's contributing. That's the
stats, when you look at the stats.
The quality of your football in the second half - the way you were playing
it about - was very impressive. You didn't look like a side who are battling
against relegation?
We've beaten Southampton, we've beaten Leicester, we've beaten Barnsley and
we should have beat Cardiff - we missed 13 chances and drew 0-0. We're 2-0
up at Leeds with 20 minutes to go and they get two deflections and scored in
the 98th minute. We were 1-0 up against Peterborough two weeks ago - 93rd
minute, they equalise - and last week against Brighton we should have won
but drew one-all. So we could quite easily be half way up the table by now
if we'd have had a bit of luck.
Today, for Robert Green to make that save? An unbelievable save. But saying
that, Collison had a chance in the 90th minute - I shut my eyes when the
ball dropped and luckily he screwed it wide!
You've installed some real passion and pride in the shirt, that was evident
today. What do you put that down to?
No disrespect but who do you want to play against next season - the teams
who are coming down from the Premier League or some of the teams coming up
from League Two? They're fighting for their lives because if you get
relegated, everything gets cut. Number one, your money gets cut - so they
know how important it is. We've got 13 games to go, we probably need to win
five or six of them, six probably. 18 points. We've got 30 points, 48 -
hopefully - keeps you up. I don't know how the results went today. Did they
all win? Some of them won, did they? [shrugs shoulders]
How proud are you of the character and commitment of the players after going
behind?
Well I think that's 10 or 11 times we've come back from a goal down. As I
said, if you'd have walked out of the ground after 10, 15 minutes today
you'd have thought "this could be any score, this". The players have dug in
and they've turned the game round, stayed in the game. Didn't go 2-0 down
and eventually... John Oster came on and made a difference, he's brilliant
with the ball and linked everything up. Giles Barnes gives you a bit of
aggression and pace and that was Coppinger's best game for a while as well.
I was proud of all of them; I was actually stood on the side watching and I
was proud. Sometimes you cringe! But today, I was proud.
Did you even expect Tommy Spurr to start let alone get through 90 minutes?
Is he fully fit?
Well he got carried off on Tuesday with a dislocated hip, I thought. So I
signed [Herita] Ilunga - and he was fit the next day! [laughs]
You got another injury today with [Shelton] Martis going off. Is he going to
be out for a while?
He thought his groin was going to go completely like it did at Barnsley, he
was out for six weeks then. But he's said it hasn't gone, fingers crossed
it's just a little niggle. Then when Diouf went down by the corner flag I
thought his hamstring had gone - my first thought was "that's him gone for
three weeks". But as usual, he was acting; playing a little game with
himself! [laughs]
Are you going to sign another centre-back to make sure Martis is fit for the
next game as well!?
No, I've got Sam Hird and Locky [Adam Lockwood]. Obviously we've got
Frederic Piquionne to come into that team and you'd like to think with all
that football we played today, with him in the box he can keep doing what he
did for us at [Nottingham] Forest. As I said, if you make chances the
hardest thing to do is put the ball in the net and normally at this level
you've got to pay a couple of million - so I think we've got a really good
player for a small wage. Hopefully he can bang some goals in for us.
After the game, were you pleased to get a point or disappointed that you
didn't get three?
If you'd have asked me after 15 minutes, a point. Then, if you'd have asked
me at the end of the game I thought we should have won. We played enough
football and created enough chances but against a really top team with a
good manager who knows what he's doing... He's got a team there that are
really strong and they'll overpower most teams. If you turn up and you're
not at the races they'll overpower everyone, they've got really good players
all over the pitch.
Ok lads? Thanks.
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West Ham 1-1 Doncaster: Daily Mirror match report
Published 21:01 11/03/12 By Lee Reynolds
The Mirror
Forget Rickie Lambert - El Hadji Diouf says HE would have made all the
difference for West Ham this season. Sam Allardyce claimed the stuttering
Hammers would have already won the league if they had 25-goal Southampton
hotshot Lambert in his side. But controversial striker Diouf reckons
Allardyce's biggest regret should be not signing him earlier in the season.
Allardyce snubbed the chance to snap up the Senegalese for a third time
partly because Hammers fans have never forgiven Diouf, 31, for allegedly
spitting at them during his Liverpool days. Diouf, signed by Allardyce at
Bolton and Blackburn, ended up joining Doncaster. And he showed West Ham
what they missed out on in a man-of-the-match display at Upton Park to help
Donny earn a crucial point in their battle to beat the drop. He had a hand
in James Coppinger's Doncaster leveller and said: "It was a big mistake for
West Ham not to sign me because if you see the game today, I played well
which is the only thing I know how to do, and Sam Allardyce would love to
have me in his team. "They said I had a problem with the fans, that's why
they don't sign me. "But I think, like Cantona when he went to Man United in
the beginning, the fans didn't like him. But he turned everything on his
side because he was a wonderful player and can win a football game. "I can
turn the fans around and make them love me like they did in Bolton and every
club I've played in."
As he often does, Diouf revelled in his role of pantomime villain. He was
jeered all game but lapped up the attention. He said: "I'm a footballer and
I love the pressure. I could play here every week because the more they boo
me the more determined I am to play well." Allardyce admitted Diouf did play
well, but was more concerned with the problems threatening to derail his
side's automatic promotion bid - a lack of goals and disappointing home
form. West Ham burst out the blocks and went ahead after just eight minutes
when Kevin Nolan stabbed home from close range. But rather than capitalise
on their early dominance West Ham took their foot off the gas and it was no
surprise when Doncaster levelled through Coppinger with 17 minutes left
after Simon Gillett turned Diouf's cross back across goal.
With four home draws in a row, Allardyce said: "We're not as fluent as we
want to be at home and we want somebody to score goals when they get
chances."
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West Ham manager Sam Allardyce demands more clinical finishing after home
draw with Doncaster
Sam Allardyce has warned his players they must be more ruthless in front of
goal if West Ham are to win automatic promotion this season.
Telegraph.co.uk
By Gordon Simpson10:30PM GMT 11 Mar 20121
Relegation-threatened Doncaster fought back at Upton Park to secure a point
after a 1-1 scoreline, a fourth consecutive home draw for the Championship's
second-placed side West Ham now trail leaders Southampton by three points,
and are above in-form Reading only on goal difference. "We could do with the
front men really delivering a little bit more in terms of goals, or whoever
the chances fall to," said Allardyce. "It hasn't been a problem away from
home, but it has been a problem here. We've just got to be a little bit more
clinical." West Ham weren't helped when the threatening Ricardo Vaz Te was
forced off with a hamstring injury after 25 minutes. From then on, it was
Doncaster's El-Hadji Diouf who took control. Diouf, who played under
Allardyce at Bolton and Blackburn, was the inspiration behind Rovers'
comeback. The controversial striker had a trial with West Ham last October
but was not signed because of a lack of match fitness and objections from
some supporters over a move. "They said I had a problem with the fans.
That's why they didn't sign me," said Diouf, who was booed throughout
Saturday's game. "That was a big mistake for West Ham because if you see the
game today I love Sam Allardyce, and he would love to have me in his team."
It was West Ham who had started vibrantly, though. Vaz Te saw a goal chalked
off just 13 seconds in, for a foul on Pascal Chimbonda, while Carlton Cole
volleyed against the crossbar. And when James Tomkins' header from Vaz Te's
cross was palmed away by Carl Ikeme, Kevin Nolan was on hand to stab home
his ninth of the season. But after Vaz Te departed, Doncaster imposed
themselves. The equaliser eventually arrived in the 73rd minute, James
Coppinger pouncing on a loose ball after Simon Gillett had turned Diouf's
delivery back across goal. Green then made a stunning save to deny the
influential Diouf, before West Ham's Jack Collison blazed wide of a gaping
goal in added time. Rovers manager Dean Saunders remains confident his
23rd-placed side can avoid the drop. "We need to win another six," he said.
"Eighteen points would give us 48. That should be enough." West Ham hope to
complete the signing of Portsmouth keeper Stephen Henderson on loan today.
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West Ham United boss claims Vaz Te's injury was turning point in Doncaster
draw
10:20am Sunday 11th March 2012 in News By Simon Mail
Guardian Series
West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce insists the turning point in their
disappointing draw with Doncaster Rovers was the injury to Ricardo Vaz Te.
The Hammers led after an early Kevin Nolan goal and were well on top but Vaz
Te went off with a hamstring injury during the first half. Doncaster fought
back as the Irons drew their fourth consecutive home game. Allardyce said:
"The big changing point for me was Vaz Te went off injured and that stopped
our biggest and most dangerous threat against the opposition. "We lost our
fluency going forward in terms of attacking and found it, I wouldn't say a
struggle, but not as good as we should have been. In the end you can always
give the opposition a slip and if you slip and they might score. "I would
have liked the players to have seen it out but they didn't."
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Exclusive - Martin: I have no confidence in West Ham's owners
Talksport
By Michael Wade
Sunday, March 11, 2012
West Ham legend Alvin Martin has told talkSPORT he has no confidence
whatsoever in the club's owners David Gold and David Sullivan. The Hammers
are chasing promotion back to the Premier League after relegation last
season, but have struggled to find any consistent form and are in danger of
slipping out of the top two and into the play-off places. And Martin reckons
the responsibility for the mess West Ham find themselves in lies squarely at
the door of Gold and Sullivan. "Sam Allardyce has been brought in to get
West Ham out of the division and I think he will but there is a
responsibility that has to go beyond that," Martin said. "Why are they in
the Championship in the first place? That's what I ask myself. They
shouldn't even be down there in the first place and who should take
responsibility for that? Two people, David Gold and David Sullivan. "They
came into the club and they had a manager called Zola and they made his
position pretty uncomfortable, they made public statements and they
undermined his authority. He kept them up and they decided to get rid of
that manager. "The following year they appointed Avram Grant and they ended
up going down. But they didn't just go down; they were close to appointing a
new manager and undermined Avram Grant. They didn't get their new manager
and then were left in dire straits. "West Ham are down in the Championship
and I hold the two new owners responsible. They kept saying we don't sack
and hire managers willy-nilly but they've done that since they came in and
they've made big, big mistakes. "There are a lot of things that have gone
wrong there and for the life of me I have no confidence in them whatsoever."
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Worries for West Ham as Reading and Southampton keep winning
Doncaster draw sees West Ham replaced as Championship title favourites
News.ladbrokes.com
Southampton are once again considered the favourites to win the Championship
at 11/8 after pulling three points clear at the top courtesy of a 2-0
victory over out-of-sorts Barnsley. Adam Lallana found the net twice as the
table-topping Saints recorded just their third win in seven at St Mary's,
and the result was lended extra significance by former frontrunners West Ham
being held at home by Doncaster. The Irons dominated the opening spell of
their fixture but faded frighteningly after January arrival Ricardo Vaz Te
departed with a hamstring injury after 25 minutes, allowing their
second-bottom guests to take charge. James Coppinger got the all-important
equaliser but it was El-Hadji Diouf, who looked set to sign for Sam
Allardyce's side earlier in the season only for fan discontent to help
derail a deal, who inflicted much of the damage. The east Londoners remain
13/8 second favourites despite a fourth successive draw in front of their
very demanding supporters, however it is Reading possessing all the momentum
right now following their eighth win in a row.
Brian McDermott's men enjoyed a 3-1 triumph over Leicester to pull level
with West Ham in second. They are back in action on Tuesday at Doncaster,
where three points will see them join Southampton on top, albeit with an
inferior goal difference. Their status as the division's form team doesn't
prevent them being rated the third most likely champions at 11/5, perhaps
because they must still visit West Ham and Southampton, in addition to
Brighton and Birmingham. The Royals meanwhile are 10/11 to keep their run
going at the Keepmoat Stadium against Doncaster, whose point at West Ham was
only the sixth that they have earned from a possible 36 when facing the top
six this season.
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