Game On! West Ham v Newcastle
Game On at Upton Park Newcastle and West Ham face off against each other this afternoon, with the need for points for the away side reaching a critical level.
Currently we're five points clear of Wigan who are away at West Brom this afternoon. In an ideal world that gap would be extended to eight points with just three games to go (for them anyway) as we win and they lose.
However I get the feeling that things aren't going to go to plan in much the same way that they've not gone to plan all season long. At the moment we can sort of forget about Wigan as our destiny is in our own hands, but for it to stay that way we must win at all costs this afternoon and take the points away from a host of faces who will be desperate to put one over on us.
Sam Allardyce, Andy Carroll and Kevin Nolan are all former employees of Newcastle and will want to make a point, especially Allardyce who has made it a habit of getting one over us wherever he has been. His brand of football may attract criticism but it's effective, especially against us.
We look devoid of confidence, lacking ideas and low on fight which are ingredients needed to help pull us out of this mess. One win is all it will take I reckon, but until that comes nerves will understandably be frayed. A growing injury list has seen Moussa Sissoko added to the list of walking wounded. Put simply, things are bad right now.
If you need a bit more background ahead of the match then why not take a look at our match preview article which is linked at the bottom of this article? It features all the other injury news, a history of the fixture and some facts and stats to get you thinking.
The game itself is not being shown live here in the UK so streams will be needed. Once again if you happen to find one then please leave a link to it in the 'comments' section below. Team news will be made available as soon as I can get my hands on it.
Howay the lads!
West Ham: Jussi Jaaskelainen; Joey O'Brien, Winston Reid, James Collins, Guy Demel; Gary O'Neill, Mohamed Diame, Kevin Nolan, Matt Jarvis; Ricardo Vaz Te, Andy Carroll
Subs: Stephen Henderson, Emanuel Pogatetz, Matt Taylor, Mark Noble, Jack Collison, Joe Cole, Carlton Cole
Newcastle: Rob Elliot; Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa; Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez; Hatem Ben Arfa, Papiss Cisse, Yoan Gouffran
Subs: Steve Harper, Mike Williamson, James Perch, Dan Gosling, Vurnon Anita, Adam Campbell, Shola Ameobi
