Tuesday again for West Ham

We owe them one, they were the first team to beat Steve Cotterill’s Burnley and in any case we haven’t beaten them at all since 1978 when a last minute Jim Thomson header won it for us 3-2.

Alan Pardew hasn’t been shy when it comes to using the transfer market and a number of players have passed as new signings have been made and others have departed. Since our August meeting he has added six permanent signings to his squad and has one of a number of loan players still at the club.

Carl Fletcher, former Bournemouth striker, arrived at the end of August for £275,000 and within days Pardew splashed out a further £300,000 for Malky Mackay the Norwich central defender.

The player who caused the rumpus at Spurs, Michael Carrick, funded all this when he moved to White Hart Lane for £2.75 million whilst a further £250,000 came in for Adam Nowland when he moved to Forest in November.

It’s a pity Nowland didn’t move earlier, he scored the goal that beat us down at the Boleyn Ground in what proved to be his only goal for the club as he passed through on his way to Forest from Franchise. That move came after he had spent a month with Gillingham.

Pardew has since added Mauricio Taricco and Chris Powell from Spurs and Charlton respectively on free transfers whilst he paid Yeovil £250,000 for Gavin Williams and more recently spent another £10,000 on Shaun Newton from Wolves.

The 2-1 win against Wigan came after they went behind with the two forwards Teddy Sheringham and Marlon Harewood getting the goals. It gave them their first win in seven games, a run that saw them slip out of the top six once again.

They have never been below ninth place in the table and the highest they have been is fourth but that was as far back as October. Besides beating the top three away from home they have also picked up maximum points at Crewe, Sheffield United and Gillingham.

Click HERE to see all West Ham’s results this season.

Alan Pardew is able to add fit again Matthew Etherington to his squad for this evening's game after he recovered from a jarred knee but he will still be without Malky Mackay, Steve Lomas, Christian Dailly and Sergei Rebrov who are all ruled out with calf injuries.

Sheringham, on his return to fitness, came through at Wigan without any problems and he is fully fit and will play tonight.

The big decision is whether to bring Etherington straight back but it looks as if he will have to settle for a place on the bench with Pardew looking likely to stick to the eleven who started at Wigan. That will mean them lining up:

Stephen Bywater, Tomas Repka, Elliott Ward, Anton Ferdinand, Chris Powell, Shaun Newton, Nigel Reo-Coker, Hayden Mullins, Mark Noble, Marlon Harewood, Teddy Sheringham. Subs: James Walker, Gavin Williams, Carl Fletcher, Matthew Etherington, Bobby Zamora.

Also travelling with the West Ham squad are: Rufus Brevett, Chris Cohen, Luke Chadwick, Hogan Ephraim.

Click HERE to see the full West Ham squad.

It’s the same squad as Saturday for Steve Cotterill and it with no injury or suspension worries it could well be a case of same again when he names the side for tonight. Much will depend on whether he sticks with the 4-4-2 formation he used for much of Saturday or whether he returns to a 4-5-1 formation.

But I expect it to be same again which will be:

Brian Jensen, Frank Sinclair, Gary Cahill, John McGreal, Mo Camara, John Oster, Micah Hyde, James O’Connor, Graham Branch, Ade Akinbiyi, Dean Bowditch. Subs: Danny Coyne, Lee Roche, Michael Duff, Tony Grant, Jean-Louis Valois.

West Ham visited Turf Moor last March for the first time since 1980 and went home with a 1-1 draw in a match that was tipped on its head by two penalty decisions by referee Phil Dowd.

After a superb, but goalless start from West Ham, we got ourselves back into the game and a first Graham Branch goal in over three years gave us the lead. The goal came after he was played in on the left hand side of goal with a superb ball from Robbie Blake and he made no mistake.

That quietened the boo boys who had dreadfully targeted Branch from the minute the players came out onto the field. The Hammers were soon level though with a penalty that was difficult to dispute and they got on top again.

They were without doubt the best side we had seen on the Turf all season in the first half but prompted by a magnificent Tony Grant we really got at them in the second half. Dowd missed a clear penalty when David May was fouled and the chance to win it was gone. It was as good a game as we saw all season and you just wondered why West Ham weren’t clear at the top of the league if they were able to play like that.

The teams were,

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche (Dean West 55), Mark McGregor, David May, Mo Camara, Luke Chadwick (Alan Moore 87), Glen Little, Tony Grant, Graham Branch, Robbie Blake, Ian Moore. Subs not used: Paul Scott, Ryan Townsend, Marc Pugh.

West Ham: Stephen Bywater, Hayden Mullins, Tomas Repka, Christian Dailly, Jon Harley, Marlon Harewood (Jobi McAnuff 75), Nigel Reo-Coker, Michael Carrick, Matthew Etherington (Adam Nowland 90), Bobby Zamora, David Connolly (Brian Deane 81). Subs not used: Pavel Srnicek, Andy Melville.