Once captain of West Ham but now manager of Championship rivals Cardiff, a happy - and talkative - Malky Mackay reflects on an unexpected windfall at his old stomping ground...
Malky: you've lost quite a lot of players in the summer so no-one was expecting that to happen today. Do you feel you deserved it, or do you feel you got a stroke of luck with that last minute goal?I don't think there was any luck involved. It was a top-class game, it was end to end. West Ham certainly created chances and I thought we created chances. It was always going to be a tough game coming here today, there were England internationals playing against us. A team, a club the size of this who are expected to go straight back up and are one of the favourites. I knew it was going to be a tough game and I'd be very surprised if West Ham didn't have any chances against us today. But I thought it was an open game and a game where we caused them problems as well.
We had eight debuts today, which is incredible for one day. And as you said, we were left in the summer with 12 senior players leaving the club, which is something I've never come across before. So we've had four weeks to bring in the nine [players] we have so far into the group and adapt - and I think that as much as you try and fast-track that, you need time for people to play with each other regularly.
That'll come but today I thought they were outstanding, the way they worked for each other and the way they found space at times to play good football as well.
You couldn't really have hoped for a more perfect start, I'd imagine?
Yes, obviously three points at Upton Park was... A lot of teams are going to come here this year and [find] this is going to be a very tough place to come [to]. I know from having been at the club: the atmosphere here, the beautiful pitch and the way West Ham can play when you play against experienced players.
So to come away with the result we did is fantastic and it's testament to the hard work - so far - that the staff and the players have put in at this football club in the last five weeks.
How have you managed to get that team spirit that was shown out there today? Because you were under the cosh a little bit in the first half. How much better do you think these players can become given more time together?
It's just about the culture that we're employing at the club. My staff have got a lot to take credit for the way that they've set the club up in the last month and the way that we want to go forward. The way that I want my players to be around the training ground, the culture I want to set at the training ground and at my football club.
So the staff have got a big part to play in that, but also the players. The players that were left here in the summer that were still at the club and the nine we brought in that we've done our homework on in terms of getting the right type of player in - not just on the pitch, but off the pitch, that's important for a club to go forward and for a club to grow, together. You need people to be working together and that includes staff, it includes directors and it includes players. Fans see that and they come along with it.
How important was it for Kenny Miller to get that? You brought him in in the summer, didn't you?
Yeah, he's had a tough summer, it's not been easy for him. I've been closely involved in his summer - too closely at times. He's had a bit of an upheaval in his life during the summer; probably not trained as much as he'd like to, through no fault of his own. So he's someone who's a little bit ring-rusty at the moment but by goodness, he put in the effort and work rate today and eventually got his reward.
He's a man who's captained Scotland, he's scored goals wherever he's been. He was the fifth-highest scorer in Europe last year so I've brought a proven scorer to the club but also a leader, someone who's got a voice in the dressing room and someone that along with Earnie [Robert Earnshaw] - who's again another captain of his country. They're going to do well for this club, the more that they train and the thicker they get.
He's been away from English football for a few years but he can do real damage in the Championship. Both of those playing together?
He's scored goals everywhere he's been; in Scotland, England, Turkey and at international level. If you're a centre forward that works hard, runs channels and runs people down with his work ethic, then you get chances - certainly in the Championship.
Defensively you must have been pleased but David Marshall inparticular must have caught your eye?
His handling, at the end, of the last cross that came in - sometimes that's seen as bread and butter but on a sloppy pitch, under pressure and in the last couple of minutes, I thought that was exceptional. David's someone who I know from many moons back - I actually played with him, believe it or not, at international level a long time ago when he was a baby. Thankfully it's not scarred him too much in his life!
But Marsh needs that bit of confidence, and when you give him that confidence and say 'go out there and be that man I know you can be' then that's what you get. You get that man who's standing up there marshalling his defence in front of him. I'm starting to see him vocal and pulling a defence around him. That's what I want to see from a goalkeeper and all credit to him today, the way that he looked so calm and composed at the end there. It certainly helps a defence when your goalkeeper is so calm.
What's actually happened with Kenny in his personal life?
No no, forget that. Not personal life, just in the way that his last month has been in terms of the move to the club and being out in Turkey. So nothing to do with his personal life, just the way that his career has gone the last month or so.
Only the first game but a great place to come and get a result. Does that up the pressure a bit now? The start of the season was a bit low key but people might be thinking you're real contenders now?
No, I don't think that. Everybody said on Friday that there's so much pressure on you going there. On Saturday they said there'll be so much pressure going into the next game... No. Absolutely not. Look at the people who have hired me to do this job, they've not heaped pressure on me. There's expectation on every manager in this division - expectation on everyone to get a result every week and expectation from the media to win every week. It's nothing different to anything I've seen in the last two years as a football manager.
What it's about is making sure you stay calm, focused and stick to the plan that we have here and not veering from that because of outside influences. We've got a plan here for my group of players and staff for a way forward this season and we won't deviate from that, ever.
It was a jittery first half performance - a couple of mistakes and obviously a lot of pressure - after half time it looked like you'd tightened things up a bit. What were you thinking at half time?
Yeah there were a couple of mistakes, I thought they were the same. I have to say that both teams were like that and gave away possession. I thought they gave away possession and we did in the first half, easily. But I think the very first question has to be [about the] eight debuts today; that's huge. Look back through your records and see the last time you saw eight debuts at Cardiff; I'm pretty sure you're not going to see it until a long time ago. Players need time to gel and play with each other, but they're good players and they're hard-working guys. I think in the second half you saw that when we, at times, controlled possession.
You've put the boot into your old club by winning. This is a big blow for them; they were expected to win today?
It's one game. It's one game and whilst it's great to win your opening game, we beat Norwich in the opening game of last season and Norwich got promoted. It's one game and I think Sam [Allardyce] will be thinking that as well. He's got a task in front of him that he was assigned by this football club and I'm sure he's going about it in the way that he has done in his last 'x' amount of years in professional football. He's an experienced man and as much as I'm sure he'll be pretty disappointed today, I'm also pretty sure that he's focused on what he needs to do for the next 45 games.
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