Pardew on... West Ham United

  • by Staff Writer
  • Sunday, 1st March 2015

Alan Pardew, once of this parish was delighted to enjoy another return to the Boleyn Ground - from where his Palace side gained three vital Premier League points...


Alan: I don't think too many people were expecting you to win so convincingly. Were you surprised at how easily you won?

No, because I was a little bit disappointed in the first half that we hand't contained the ball and worked it better than we had. We had a tough period in that first half. Second half, we kind of nailed it, especially in the first period. We were terrific and although we got three set play goals today we caused lots of dangerous balls going across the front and it was good to feel that because I keep saying to this team they're better than they think they are.

But we had to show another side. Glenn has gone for a ball in the box that all striker's are going to go for and gets sent off. I looked at that clock with 16 minutes to go and thought 'blimey, that's going to be a long time' - and it was. It felt like 160 minutes, but we got there.

How would you assess Glen's performance today? He was excellent up until [the red card]?

He was, wasn't he. He's just got that nouse as a number nine to find a bit of space and be in the crucial place at the crucial time. He had three good chances today, he could have had a hat-trick in the first half just purely by. I hope he doesn't feel I'm insulting him but he ain't the quickest. But Teddy coaches here now and when I had him as a player here he is a little bit like Teddy in that he can create space for himself but not a great deal of pace. Clever.

Did he want to in the window? I read somewhere that he wanted to go out on loan.

We must have had three or four Championship teams who felt they had a chance of him on loan; Reading probably the most prominent because he'd already been there. But I gave him a new contract and said he can stay and help us get out of this situation.

He's been unfortunate that Fraser came in and did brilliantly for us so he's had to be patient, even in the spell I've been here. But he's rewarded me today and I can't thank him enough, I thought he was terrific. I felt sorry for him when he got sent off, it was probably my fault as well as I should have done it earlier. I was getting Shola ready but it was too late.

You looked a handful today; hopefully you can stay up with a bit to spare?

Well for us the away win was so important. It gives us now a platform that if we win our home games or at least three of them we can stay in the division and you can't really ask for any more than that at this stage in our second season in the Premier League. We've got ourselves in a great position tonight and now we have to see it home.

Sorry to have to ask this, but TV showed that Mile Jedinak followed through with an elbow on Sakho. What did you make of that and have you spoken to him about that?

Yes, I've seen the incident and there's no doubt that he' gone to aggressively kick the ball into the stand to buy us a little bit of time and his elbow's high. I don't think there was anything malicious in it and I do hope the authorities look kindly on it.

You would hope that there's no retrospective action then?

No, of course. His performance today was phenomenal and he won almost every header in midfield. Anyone who knows him knows that he hasn't got any nastiness in him and it's a shame that those two incidents are probably going to grab some headlines, Glen getting sent off and Mile's incident -because we warrant more than that.

The strength of your squad showed through today. It showed that Palace now have a really strong squad of players?

Yeah. We've been a little bit unlucky with injuries. Sonogo we lost, Chamakh we lost. I left Joe out today for Mile to return to play a crucial part. And, of course, McArthur for Mutch. It's that depth that we managed to get in the last window that has probably helped us to get us this win today, so I owe a little bit of a debt to the Chairman and the board for that.

You picked a very attacking line-up today. Did you think West Ham were here for the taking?

No, of course not, but I knew after Yanick's 20 minutes at Arsenal there was no way I'm was going to leave him out, I'm not a complete fool. He was absolutely unbelievable and he had his moments today. We know that those two can create for us and it's just about whether we can get enough bodies in the box. We managed to do that at times today. We found a new role for Puncheon, I thought he was terrific too.

It's a great to see Jonas Gutierrez back on the bench for Newcastle today at Aston Villa?

Big news, because wow, we had the profile of raised today about cancer awareness so it was close to my heart today and that applause around the ground was magnificent I thought. I'm please about Jonas, so pleased for him to come through that and get himself on the bench.

Is Murray going to claim that first goal?

Yes, he said he got so much spin on it that Cresswell had no chance to clear it! [laughs] That's what he said to me.

What happens there, do the FA look at it?

I think Sky said to me they'll give it to Glen and I don't if the referee has a shout. I don't really know if I'm honest.



What's your record like here? Have you lost much coming back here with other clubs?

No, I've lost here - this is a tough place to come, but it worked out for us today. I'm so pleased for the group, we really worked hard this week on a lot of aspects of our game and I was really pleased with the way the players have conducted themselves in terms of their tactical performance.

Did you work very hard on the set pieces?

We're good at set plays, we've got people who can really attack it. My record at Newcastle was awful. I kept saying to the board I need someone to attack the bloody ball, we need a couple of players in this group. Luckily I've come to this club and they're here. Scott Dann is a real threat and it was a great goal because to win that header against Reid showed his quality.

What was the new contract with Glen Murray?

He's got an extension until the year ending next season. Thank you.

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