Pardew on... West Ham United United

  • by Staff Writer
  • Saturday, 29th November 2014

It was an unhappy homecoming for the man who once said he had "unfinished business" at West Ham. But good news perhaps for the team behind sackpardew.com. Regardless, read Alan 'Pards' Pardew's full, post-match press conference exclusively here on KUMB...

Tight game, Alan?

Yeah. It was. I said to the team that we probably let ourselves down in the period leading up to their goal, in that we didn't create the great moment we needed to get a goal. We got in some really good positions in the first half and didn't quite find the pass or the bit of quality that we have found in recent weeks.

The goal was very disappointing as we'd defended absolutely superbly against a team that put you under a lot of pressure with a lot of high balls. We'd dealt with most of that and it was a mis-hit shot that's just fallen nicely for them. You kind of sensed that one goal today was going to be very important for both teams.

Have you got any arguments about the sending off?

Not really, no. I think Moussa [Sissoko] was frustrated that he hasn't got the free kick in the box, or felt that he hadn't fouled him. I think he just lost his mind for a little bit there and kicked the ball away, then literally the next incident was a minute after.

It's not like Moussa, he's been outstanding for us. He has to learn from that of course but he isn't a malicious player. I've seen it on the replay, it doesn't look too good actually but he's not like that and I'm sure he will apologise to Andy [Carroll] after.

Is that why you shook his hand after, because you cosidered it to be uncharacteristic of him?

A little bit, yeah. I don't ... I didn't really see the incident on the Andy Carroll one, if I'm honest, too well from where I was sitting but i just wanted to show to him that it happens occasionally. He's been absolutely superb for us and you can trust me in the room that he is a proper, honest person.

The run comes to an end but lots of positives to take from that?

Well, it's one of those things that you don't want to come to an end. We'd like to have perhaps made more opportunities today than we did but the application of the players, the character of the team and the balance of the team was good. We had to make changes again today, we lost our goalie; Cheick Tiote's had to come in and wasn't really fully up to speed but I thought both of them did very well.

That's been key to our run; we've looked in the squad and everybody has come to the plate and delivered for us. Unfortunately today, we've come up short.

There wasn't a lot betwwen the teams today?

There was some good, professional battles going on. Both Mark Noble and Jack [Colbeck] were outstanding for their teams and there was a lot of good stuff going on, but not a lot of goal action. We've been really tight, not giving any team too much freedom and the game only really opened up for the first time when we went down to ten men.

That's been key to our success, a real conservative approach in terms of how we defend.

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