Nolan advocates long-ball game
Kevin Nolan believes West Ham United can still clinch automatic promotion, if they concentrate on hurting teams.
Speaking after the Hammers recovered from 3-1 down to draw with Birmingham City, the skipper admitted the Upton Park side must gain maximum points from their last four games to have a chance of avoiding the play-offs.
He told the London Evening Standard: "It's not all done and dusted yet. We have to win every game now to give us a chance of going up automatically.
"We really have to give it a big push now. If that doesn't work, then it's the play-offs, but we have to make sure that, from now until the end of the season, we get the basics right."
Win ugly
And Nolan says that the fans' desire to play attractive football may have to be tempered to get results as Monday's draw with Birmingham was West Ham's seventh home game without a win.
He continued: "We got sucked in to just keeping the ball and not hurting them. We're conceding sloppy goals when we have control of the game.
"We should have played some more long balls, to open up the game and try to get between their midfield and the back four.
"We should have played some more long balls, to open up the game and try to get between their midfield and the back four"
Kevin Nolan Quotes of the week
"There were a few things said to a few people at half-time but to be fair we have a great bunch of lads here, and we have to be able to tell each other when we're not doing the right things."
Penalty
Nolan was booked after protesting to the referee, who failed to award the Hammers a penalty when Carlton Cole was pulled back by Steven Caldwell.
The captain said he had spoken to the striker about his reaction to the foul.
"People are going on about 'divers' in the game all the time, but Carlton, the honest lad that he is, decided to stay up after being pulled back.
"I said, 'If you want the penalty, you have to go down'. If you're honest, it seems, you don't get it."
evening standard
Fans won’t like it but West Ham must ‘lump it’ if they’re to go up
West Ham fans should swiftly adapt one of their songs after their second- half great escape at home to Birmingham.
Instead of singing about playing on the floor, their new chant should be: ‘We’re West Ham United, we lump it in the air.’
In reality, the Upton Park club’s automatic promotion hopes are fading fast following yet another failure to win at home but yesterday’s draw at least still makes it possible if, as manager Sam Allardyce admits, they need to win their last four remaining Championship matches.
Against Chris Hughton’s well-drilled side, West Ham were determined to follow their supporters’ advice and play it on the floor but were 3-1 down at the end of a dreadful first half.
All thoughts of the so-called ‘West Ham way’ evaporated after that. Allardyce’s team went direct and no one was moaning as they battled gamely back to take a point and could have even won it had substitute Henri Lansbury not contrived an ‘air shot’ in front of goal in the dying seconds.
Captain Kevin Nolan, who was booked for protesting too strongly after referee Jonathan Moss had turned down one of several strong penalty appeals, said: “We’ve been wanting a home performance like that second half for a while but it’s just disappointing we’re not learning and conceding sloppy goals when we have control of the game.
“We really have to give it a big push now for automatic promotion. If that doesn’t work then it’s the play-offs but we have to make sure that, from now until the end of the season, we get the basics right.
“There were a few things said to a few people at half-time but to be fair we have a great bunch of lads here and we have to be able to tell each other when we’re not doing the right things.
“It’s not all done and dusted yet, though. What we have to do is win every game now to give us a chance of going up automatically.”
The naive way West Ham played in the first half suited Birmingham perfectly. While Mark Noble and company tipped and tapped their ineffective way, Hughton’s side sat deep, lit up a cigar and waited for the chance to counter-attack.
They scored two goals on the break, through Jordan Mutch and Marlon King before an anaemic West Ham side managed to pull one back through Ricardo Vaz Te only for Chris Burke to immediately stretch the visitors’ lead once again.
That was a signal for Allardyce to desperately launch the heavy artillery and in the second half, after laying siege to Birmingham’s goal, West Ham first made it 3-2 through Carlton Cole before Vaz Te netted a dramatic 89th-minute penalty.
“We got sucked in to just keeping the ball and not hurting them in the first half,” admitted Nolan.
“We should have played some more long balls then, to open up the game and try to get between their midfield and the back four.
“That was the most disappointing aspect, that we didn’t realise we were playing balls we shouldn’t have been, particularly because that was where their first two goals came from.”
Nolan also revealed he spoke to his team-mate Cole after the West Ham striker decided to stay on his feet, having been pulled back by Birmingham defender Steven Caldwell.
“People are going on about ‘divers’ in the game all the time but Carlton, the honest lad that he is, decided to stay up after being pulled back,” he said.
“I said, ‘If you want the penalty, you have to go down’. If you’re honest it seems, you don’t get it.”
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