Allardyce on... Newcastle United

  • by Staff Writer
  • Saturday, 29th November 2014

There may not be any champers on the menu at Chateau Allardyce tonight but Big Sam was nonetheless in high spirits after his team ground out a 1-0 win over in-form Newcastle. Read his full, post-match press conference exclusively here on KUMB...

Champagne out tonight, Sam? As opposed to the red wine?

Ha! I think it's a massive victory for us today. The opposition came here today with the best run of results in the Premier League recently, even better than Chelsea. That's saying something considering how Chelsea are going this season, but they're on a fantastic run of victories that has brought them up [the table] and above us before we started today's game.

Our game plan was obviously to try and win the game but I always thought it was going to be a tight match - and that ended up being the case. For me, it was telling the players: "Do not concede the first goal, because the way Newcastle are playing at this moment in time you will find it hugely difficult to get back in the game if you do".

Whilst it was a little scrappy in the first half we got better in the second and I have to give Aaron Cresswell a huge amount of praise for the quality of his finish. He showed our more attacking and creative players how to put the ball in the back of the net today which was really pleasing, because while he was quite lucky to get the chance - from a mis-hit shot - he never gave up on it and his quality of finishing was fantastic.

I felt we should have gone on and won the game more comfortably when they went down to ten men, but a couple of good saves and a couple of bad misses meant we were pretty nervous at the end. To get the victory to go fifth and up to 21 points is huge for us and a huge push going into a very quick game at West Brom on Tuesday and then Swansea next week. We've started off with three points in what could be a massive week for us all, playing three games in seven or eight days.

How's the injury situation?

Well hopefully no injuries today, which is very important but I don't know about Valencia, Sakho or Song just yet. Saying that, I hope nobody wakes up tomorrow morning and finds they've got a problem. We're keeping the squad together to go off to West Brom now and try to continue this undefeated run again, so we'll see how we go there.

Certainly Valencia, Sakho and Songy are reasonably close - whether they're close enough for Tuesday I don't know, but certainly if not Tuesday then I think most of them will be back for Swansea.

Tomkins had an outstanding game, I thought?

Yes he did. He covered up an awful lot and made some very good interceptions. He read the game very well today. We have the added bonus that Winston Reid has now overcome his suspension. Coping with missing players is hugely difficult against the most in-form team in the Premier League at the minute; winning shows the strength and depth of our squad and is paying dividends, up to now.

Andy [Carroll]; no goals, but quite influential?

Yes. He's getting better and better, as is his match fitness the more games he plays. I'll have to assess him for tomorrow and Monday to know whether he's got the capability or the energy to play at West Brom. When you're only two games into your pre-season - which is what Andy is - the last thing I want to do is risk playing him whilst he's fatigued, not recovered in time and risking another injury. Even though Andy will disagree! That will be determined by me and the staff on Monday or Tuesday morning. Let's hope we can go to West Brom and finish this week undefeated.

Do you worry sometimes about him throwing himself into tackles?

I do, yes. It does concern me that he has no fear. Sometimes having no fear, or not sensing danger could ultimately end up with him injuring himself rather than somebody else injuring him. With a little bit more experience perhaps he'll sense that a little bit more but he does throw himself at everything, doesn't he!

A quick word on Mark Noble; a record number of Premier League games for West Ham?

Only 26, isn't he. A marvellous achievement, outstanding credit to Nobes. It's rare today that a man dedicates himself to one club as he has done. You've see it with Liverpool and Steven Gerrard, at Man United and John Terry at Chelsea, but the way players move round and change clubs today make it a massive bonus for West Ham and a massive achievement for Mark.

I can't remember the last time West Ham had 21 points before Christmas; just how far do you think this team can go? Is this above expectations?

At the moment we're above expectations but we realised those levels a few weeks ago here when we beat Liverpool and we beat Man City. My challenge to the players was to sustain that level [of performance]. It's hard to get there; it's even harder to stay there. Today's victory gives us an opportunity, going into December, to see if we can sustain it.

If we can sustain it through December and into January then we can reschedule where we think we should or might finish if we continue. So we'll wait until then. Historically, December and January have been difficult months for us over the last two seasons. We've started a hectic period today with a victory and three points, so let's hope we achieve a lot more points than we have done in the last couple of seasons.

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