Allardyce told players to give 'value for money'
- by Staff Writer
- Wednesday, 30th October 2013
A half time blast from Sam Allardyce spurred West Ham on to a 2-0 win against Burnley last night.
The Irons' boss revealed after the game how he had laid into his team following a dreadful first half in which West Ham were lucky to escape on level terms, having been battered by the Championship leaders."I told them at half-time that our 2,000 fans had paid 80 or 90 quid to get to the game and they were giving them stick," told Allardyce.
"I said 'you've got a West Ham shirt on and I don't care old or young you are, go out there and give them some entertainment and value for money'.
"I told them 'I'm going to change the system to help you because the current one isn't working, then you go out and play like you can'.
"But systems only work when the individuals play to their best - and our players did a magnificent job in the second half and gave the fans a lot of entertaining, attacking play at their end. They wanted to see us win and we did."
Whilst Swansea's Europa League match last Thursday resulted in their Premier League clash with West Ham being postponed by 24 hours (to the Sunday), West Ham were afforded no such luxury having to play just 48 hours after the 0-0 draw at the Liberty Stadium.
And given to the lack of time his team had to prepare, Allardyce was particularly pleased with the win - especially with the younger members of the match day squad - such as Pelly Ruddock and Leo Chhambers - who performed admirably.
"I told everybody after the Swansea match that we would change the team to make sure we had enough fresh legs to cope with a very difficult game," he said.
"Burnley are top of the Championship and they beat QPR on Saturday. We played on Sunday afternoon at four o'clock and got back late on Sunday night.
"It would have been ridiculous of me not to use players who were fit, eager and raring to go - and remiss of me not to play some of the Under-21s who are top of their league and test them at this level.
"For the last 20 minutes we had a back four that included Leo Chambers, Pelly Ruddock and Dan Potts. They defended against Sam Vokes and Danny Ings, who have scored nearly 20 Championship goals between them.
"After the Aldershot game two years ago, I showed that if they weren't good enough that they wouldn't be here for much longer. Now we have a group of youngsters who are top of the U21 Premier League, so they deserved a chance."
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