Daily WHUFC News - 2nd December 2013

Cole happy with potent display
WHUFC.com
Joe Cole was delighted to see forwards Modibo Maiga and Carlton Cole on song
against Fulham
01.12.2013

Joe Cole came off the bench on Saturday to add the final gloss to West Ham
United's 3-0 win over Fulham. The 32-year-old scored his second goal of the
season to add to earlier strikes from Mohamed Diame and Carlton Cole and
lift the Hammers three points clear of their visitors. It all added up to
West Ham's first home Barclays Premier League win of the season since the
opening day - when he was also on target - and the former Liverpool man was
glad to see his namesake Carlton and fellow striker Modibo Maiga test the
Cottagers' defence all afternoon. Watch all the reaction to the Fulham win
on West Ham TV here
"It's always nice to score and I was pleased for Carlton too because I've
seen how hard he's worked," he said. "He had a difficult summer so scoring a
goal was a real lift for him and you want your centre forwards to be
scoring, because that's the focal point of the game. "Maiga deserves a
special mention too because I thought he was brilliant. He ran them ragged,
won a number of flick-ons and gave a good centre-forward's performance. I
hope he gets his goal soon because he's back and he's on it. "The runs they
were making gave Stewie Downing, Jarvis, myself and Kevin Nolan the space to
play in behind them.
"It was real front-foot football from us. The manager really emphasised that
we wanted to get on the front foot - we didn't turn up last week against a
very good Chelsea side, so this was a good response."

West Ham are quickly back in action when they travel to Crystal Palace for
another London derby on Tuesday and Cole is determined to register
successive league wins for the first time since the Hammers' return to the
top flight. He added: "There's no time to enjoy it, but it's certainly
better to have a win to go to Crystal Palace with. Our goal is to get
back-to-back Premier League wins - if we can do that it could really take
our season on."

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est Ham's Sam Allardyce relieved after win that saw Fulham counterpart
Martin Jol sacked, not him
1 Dec 2013 22:30
The Mirror

Sam Allardyce is well aware that it could have been him. Fulham manager
Martin Jol may have left Saturday's P45 derby and proceeded directly to the
job centre, but opposite number Big Sam admitted afterwards that it really
was a case of, 'There but for the grace of God go I.' Allardyce's West Ham
side had been bloodlessly beaten by Chelsea at Upton Park seven days
previously. To lose against a Fulham side that had won just five out of
their 57 Premier League London derbies away from home would have left him
pretty much the same position that Jol found himself. Particularly with
Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester United and Arsenal among the Hammers'
fixtures after Tuesday's game at Crystal Palace. "I'd been under pressure
all week." said Big Sam, "I'd been under pressure since the final whistle
went against Chelsea to say to [the players] that the position we're in is
unacceptable. "The build-up to this game was far greater pressure for me
than it was building for the Chelsea match because we're both in the wrong
position in the Premier League. Its a position nobody expected, certainly
after last season's 10th-place finish. "Defeat would have been as poor a
start as it's been, points wise. Probably the same with Fulham."

Instead, West Ham can breathe a bit more easily this morning after a 3-0
win. In fact, three more points at Selhurst Park would give the east
Londoners even more room to manoeuvre going into a busy December. Let's have
it right, they were not actually that good in seeing off Fulham. The brutal
truth is that both sets of players went into the match with their manager
under pressure, and only one set of players actually fought for theirs.
Fulham were appalling.

One TV assessment summed up their days' (lack of) work superbly: They were
anonymous at the start and invisible at the end. They made not a single shot
on target and only a cursory attempt to suggest that they were aware of the
plight they were in. At least Scott Parker stood up to be counted afterwards
as his team-mates shuffled shamefully past the waiting press. Parker said:
"At the end of the day, the manager takes all the flak really. But
ultimately we as players need to take massive responsibility. "He's the one
who picks us and we're the ones that go out there. It isn't nice being down
there and obviously confidence is low. I don't think its a fact that players
are not willing to put in hard work because they are."

The trouble is, that does not appear to be the case from the evidence of our
own eyes. Fulham right now are a tired outfit, devoid of fight, craft, ideas
or desire. In the press conference afterwards, Jol - who refused to publicly
berate his players - clenched his fist and shook it a couple of times. "We
missed a bit of that," he said. They did indeed. The Fulham boss, axed on
Sunday, probably should have used 'a bit of that' when he went into the
dressing room.

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Jol on... West Ham United
KUMB.com
Filed: Monday, 2nd December 2013
By: Staff Writer

KUMB.com were present as a physically-drained Martin Jol delivered his final
post-match press conference as Fulham manager before he was fired. His full
presser exclusively for you here...

Martin: are your players still fighting for you?

[long pause] I think so, because in the last few weeks every time we had a
disappointing game we managed to pick them up, and they picked themselves
up, to try to be 100 per cent for the next game.

I feel that even before the game with the influence of my bigger players, my
captain and my vice-captain we had an unbelievably good spirit again. The
first goal was a hammer blow although that took 46 minutes [to arrive] - and
it took until the 82nd minute before they scored a second goal.

The last ten minutes summed everything up. We wanted to substitute Kieran
[Ricardson] because of a hamstring problem and after that they scored the
second goal. Because we couldn't make the swap I brought Moussa Dembele on
and he pulled his hamstring after 30 seconds for the first time in his life,
he said. So pretty symbolic of the second half.

You had your head in your hands when the third goal went in. What do you
think this means today?

No... It's more the way we did it. You saw the goal, it was almost too easy
on the left. They got through and we lacked a bit of mental and physical
toughness.

Are you worried that this could be your last game in charge?

If I had to worry I would probably have worried a couple of months ago. It's
not from one day or the other, it's over the last two months we've been
inconsistent.

Why has it not worked out for you here, do you think?

I think it worked out for me, because we've won plenty of points - probably
more than West Ham over the last couple of years and more than any other
team in the bottom half of the table. But over the last couple of months...
Sometimes we are not strong enough.

Are you not tempted to walk away, Martin?

No. I'm someone who's got maybe eight, nine hundred games under my belt as a
manager. 1,400 probably in total and I know that three points can give you a
totally different view.

Is this your worst run you can remember as a manager?

Yes.

What was up with Djimitar today?

He didn't feel too well yesterday so we decided not to take him. I spoke to
him as I wanted to play him as I thought we needed to play with a better
tempo. The first half was ok but to come out and concede in the first minute
or so, that was awful.

No fall out with Djimitar?

No, no.

Six defeats in a row now, that is a hard thing to overcome isn't it?

Yes and that is why we are in the bottom three of the table. That will
happen if you don't get the points. If we'd beaten West Ham they would
probably be in the same situation. There's other teams and there will be
other managers in the next couple of weeks who'll need the points to get out
of that situation. We didn't today, again.

You had no shots on target; was that a big disappointment for you?

Yes and that is not the first time, which is why we changed it up front.
Last year we almost always had the same front four and we scored 21 goals
[by this stage in the season] - 10 goals more than now.

How confident are you that you will be manager come next weekend?

It's not in my hands.


* On Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after Fulham's defeat at the
Boleyn Ground, the Cottagers announced that they had parted company with
Martin Jol. You may read the Club's statement here.

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Allardyce on... Fulham
KUMB.com
Filed: Monday, 2nd December 2013
By: Staff Writer

Sam Allardyce celebrates as the Hammers avoid losing a third game on the
bounce; we're just happy to win. Big Sam's full press conference exclusively
here...

Sam: you made a lot of changes and got a positive reaction from your players
today, including those who came on as substitutes?

Yes. The only disappointing thing for me today was that we didn't score more
goals before the subs came on. That was something I was getting pretty
nervous about, because we all know at 1-0 that one slip and Fulham could
maybe capitalise on something they perhaps didn't deserve.

Of course, we had many chances to go two-nil up before the subs came on but
they came on and finished the game for us. It's just great for you as a
manager to have finally got a victory that you've been searching for,
winning three-nil at home. Results and goals have been difficult to come by
home and away; we've scored three today and on the balance of play could
have scored a lot more.

Hopefully the players have overcome that issue about taking chances. We got
a little bit of luck on the first goal, which I felt Mo Diame deserved after
his hard work in winning the ball back to get at the Fulham defence. The two
goals after that which won us the game were fantastic and I think we got a
performance and a result today.

That's what every player, manager and fan wants as everybody goes home happy
and we feel a bit more relieved, a bit more comfortable about our position.
Certainly we haven't got long to dwell on that because by tomorrow [Sunday]
morning we've got to get ready for Crystal Palace on Tuesday.

You said last week there was a bit of fear in the players. That first goal
today seemed to transform them?

Well it always does, doesn't it? Goals change games and breeds a little bit
more confidence in the players. In the end we started to create more and
more chances and started to hit the target more and more, which is what I've
been talking about. We had nine shots on target and (only) four off target
in the same half; that was the difference to why we actually got three goals
today in the end, I think.

From the players' point of view, they'll feela little bit of relief like I
said - but we can't rest on our laurels, we've got a big game on Tuesday. As
I've just said in the dressing room, it's been an up and down season that we
didn't quite expect so can we make it a positive on Tuesday and do what we
couldn't do last season by winning back-to-back games.

Today we avoided losing three games on the trot yet again. We've not lost
three games on the trot since we've been back in the Premier League. Now can
we go and have a more positive attitude and [hopefully] result by winning
our first back-to-back games since we've been back. It'd make a massive
difference if we can get another three points on Tuesday night.

We've only relieved the pressure slightly today; no result on Tuesday would
bring us right back down to earth and put the pressure right back on us.
We're playing another team who are in and around where we are and who have a
new manager who's incredibly experienced at this level. We've got to go and
make sure we get a result at Palace.

You had a nice exchange with Martin Jol at the start. Did you feel a bit for
him at the end with his head in his hands?

Always. You can't be in our game not feeling for each other when things
aren't going our way. It's a lonely old job when you're trying to find the
right solution to results. It's one where people don't really understand
what you go through because they've never experienced it. Talking to each
other and pulling ourselves through...

The people that you interract with on a regular basis have got to help you,
because you're in a position where you take all the heat. You've got to take
all the heat because it's your job and if it's going bad it's your
responsibility - no matter whether you've got injuries, no matter whether
you should have signed this one or that one before the deadline and you
didn't get him; it's no excuse in the end.

Even though it is an excuse for not getting the results everybody expects.

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Carlton Cole hoping regular goals will earn new deal with West Ham
Last Updated: December 1, 2013 11:29pm
SSN

Carlton Cole is determined to get himself on the scoresheet regularly so he
can earn a new contract at West Ham. Cole left West Ham in the summer after
seven years at the club, but he was unable to find another club and returned
to Upton Park in October on a short-term deal as cover for the injured Andy
Carroll. The 30-year-old stepped off the bench to score West Ham's second
goal in the 3-0 win over Fulham on Saturday, and he now hopes he can start
finding the back of the net on a regular basis. "Once you score you feel you
can get in a rhythm and score more so hopefully there will be more to come
for me now," said Cole, whose contract expires in January. "Hopefully they
will be important goals. I want to keep the momentum and doing the right
thing.
"It's up to the manager. I can only play my best and try to play to my
capacity on the field." "I want to stay, of course, and I'm very confident.
I know the ins and outs of the club. Sometimes change is good but I'm here
and have been here for so long - I'd like to stay on. "It's up to the
manager. I can only play my best and try to play to my capacity on the
field. Whatever they will do in the future is beyond my control. "We'll see
how it goes. I'm fit now, I've always been working for my fitness and the
manager has been waiting for the right time for me to start. "Hopefully I've
done myself a favour and will get a start soon. I'll wait for the manager to
make the decision."

The win over Fulham lifted the Hammers three points clear of the relegation
zone ahead of Tuesday's crucial clash at fellow strugglers Crystal Palace.
"We saw the Fulham game and the Crystal Palace game as six-pointers," Cole
added. "So the next game is another big game for us. "Hopefully we can get
our first back-to-back wins of the season. We're doing our match
preparations now, we're ready."

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West Ham's Carlton Cole eyes more goals to secure contract extension
2 Dec 2013 05:43
The Mirror

Carlton Cole wants to start banging the goals in for West Ham so he can earn
a contract extension at Upton Park. Cole left the club after seven years in
the summer, but the Hammers handed him a short-term contract in October
after the severity of Andy Carroll's injury became clear. The 30-year-old
started repaying manager Sam Allardyce's faith on Saturday afternoon when he
came off the bench to score the second goal in West Ham's 3-0 victory over
Fulham.
The former Chelsea man now hopes he can start banging the goals in on a
regular basis. "Once you score you feel you can get in a rhythm and score
more so hopefully there will be more to come for me now," said Cole, who
drew a blank in the first four games since he re-signed for the club.
"Hopefully they will be important goals. I want to keep the momentum and
doing the right thing."

Should he keep scoring, Cole admits his chances of prolonging his stay
beyond January, when his contract expires, will improve. "I want to stay, of
course, and I'm very confident," he said. "I know the ins and outs of the
club. "Sometimes change is good but I'm here and have been here for so long
- I'd like to stay on.
"It's up to the manager. I can only play my best and try to play to my
capacity on the field. "Whatever they will do in the future is beyond my
control. "We'll see how it goes. "I'm fit now, I've always been working for
my fitness and the manager has been waiting for the right time for me to
start. "Hopefully I've done myself a favour and will get a start soon. "I'll
wait for the manager to make the decision."

Fellow substitute Joe Cole and Mohamed Diame were also on the scoresheet in
what turned out to be the Hammers' first home win since the opening day of
the season. The Hammers fans who booed their team off after last week's 3-0
win over Chelsea lauded their team on Saturday afternoon. But given that
West Ham are still only three points above the relegation zone, Cole knows
his team cannot afford to take their foot off the accelerator. "We saw the
Fulham game and the Crystal Palace game (on Tuesday) as six-pointers," Cole
added. "So the next game is another big game for us. "Hopefully we can get
our first back-to-back wins of the season. "We're doing our match
preparations now, we're ready."

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