Fatigue and injuries cost us a Cup run, says Allardyce

  • by Staff Writer
  • Saturday, 14th February 2015

Sam Allardyce believes that fatigue cost his team a stab at the last eight of this year's FA Cup.

The Hammers were soundly beaten 4-0 at the Hawthorns this afternoon having produced arguably their worst display of the season so far, given that it was a reasonably strong starting eleven.

However Allardyce insisted this afternoon that the excesses of having to play three games in seven days - combined with a string of injuries to vital players - was responsible for today's hugely disappointing Cup exit.

"It's probably come based on what we've had to cope with over the last few weeks. It told on us today, there's no doubt about that," he said. "I have to give West Brom a lot of credit, they were very good - but I look at the players and there wasn't the energy we know they've got.

"Last Sunday we gave a huge effort at 4 o'clock against Manchester United and then we had to do 30 minutes with nine men at Southampton on Wednesday. Those two games really caught up with us today.

"The players couldn't get anywhere near the energy levels we know they can and we couldn't live with West Brom in the end. Even though we thought the first goal was offside, they played much better on the day."

Despite few (if any) players having done enough in the eyes of the supporters to have been considered a success on the day, Allardyce refused to blame his team for a defeat eerily reminiscent of last season's third round defeat at Nottingham Forest.

"I'm not going to criticise my players, they've given everything they've got," he said. "Anybody who says they haven't done that doesn't know much about football.

"We just couldn't get to the levels we can because they've played too many games, under the circumstances, in less than six days.

"Too many things have gone against us in the end to prevent us from having a fantastic run in this competition. We've not been able to cope squad-wise in the end because of the injuries we've had - and it's caught up with us.

"Andy is out, Jarvis is out, Collins, Reid and Poyet. We want all of those back and hopefully none of these players picked up an injury today. We've got some good recovery time because we don't play Tottenham until a week tomorrow.

"That will hopefully give us time to enable the players to carry on where they left off last week against Man United and Southampton but, unfortunately today when it mattered, not against West Brom."

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