Hammers in Town

West Ham arrive at the JJB fresh from their midweek victory over Liverpool and a top ten place in the Premiership, they are doing alright this season, would probably be a fair assessment.

Curbishley wants the Hammers to play the traditional West Ham way and knock the ball about, well lets hope they try that today on a JJB pitch that will be more like a bog.

The pitch has been bad of late but the weather for the last two days will not have helped and sitting here looking through my window at 9.11 am I can see that the snow is falling and I dread to think what state the pitch will be in today.

Marlon King is set to make his debut and I for one am looking forward to this.

I always liked King and he plays with a smile on his face and appears to enjoy his football.

Today is my birthday, I have never seen Latics play on my birthday before so I am hoping that they will put on a show for yours truly but a win is essential with the closeness of the bottom teams

Lets hope that the football warms us up today because its going to be cold in those stands!

Latic boss Steve Bruce:

'We've got to meet the relegation scrap head on and take the bull by the horns - I always believe that.

'We have done over the last two or three months, that's for sure, so I've been delighted.

'We were poor in the first half against Middlesbrough but apart from that we've been in there making a fist of it.'

West Ham boss Alan Curbishley:

Talking about West Ham keeper Robert Green

"I don't think being left out of the England squad is going to change his mentality. He'll just take it on the chin and get on with it"

"There is not any part of his game he needs to work on, he's just been very, very consistent for us.

"Once he gets the nod from England he will go on from there.

"It's still very early - he's

Erik Edman is out with a calf strain whilst Erik Hagem is awaiting international clearance following his deadline day signing

Bruce will pick two from four with Marlon King, Emile Heskey, Marcus Bent and Antoine Sibierski all after a starting place up front.

Latics from:

Kirkland, Melchiot, Bramble, Scharner, Kilbane, Valencia, Brown, Palacios, Taylor, Bent, Heskey, King, Aghahowa, Boyce, Edman, Figueroa, Granqvist, Koumas, Olembe, Cotterill, Sibierski, Skoko, Pollitt.

Hopefully King will make his home debut today and show the Latics faithful what hes got

Craig Bellamy and Julien Faubert will have late fitness tests

West Ham from:

Green, Neill, Ferdinand, Upson, McCartney, Ljungberg, Noble, Mullins, Bowyer, Ashton, Boa Morte, Etherington, Cole, Spector, Wright, Solano, Faubert, Bellamy.

Classy player and a local lad from just down the road, no secret that we have tried to sign Ashton on two previous occassions

Wigan Athletic 0-3 West Ham United
Boa Morte 30, Benayoun 57, Harewood 82
Ref: Graham Poll
28 April 2007

This was a disastrous result for the Latics and it made Premiership survival look very unlikely. We were torn apart by Tevez

Martin Atkinson (Yorkshire)

Card watch

Games - 16

Yellows - 50

Red - 3

Heart says 3-1 Latics win

Head says 2-0 Latics win

Seeing as its my birthday today lets have a birthday wish of 4-0 Latics

Premier League

Sunderland Vs Latics
Stadium of Light
9/02/2008
3 pm

Latics Vs Derby County
JJB Stadium
23/02/2008
3 pm

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