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Alan Pardew & Gillingham Assistant Manager John Gorman share their post-match thoughts with us after our 3-1 defeat of the Kent side.......

Alan Pardew - West Ham United

It was a good performance today. Both teams were disrupted to some extent by a lot of injuries on the pitch The surface played a part in that. We ended up with three subs on and Malky needed to come off but we had no subs left. All three substitutions were down to injuries. They lost a player in the warm-up and also lost Darren (Byfield) at the end through injury.

We were very happy with our first half display Bobby Zamora - who's come in for some criticism over the last few games - was the best player out there today. It was only a knock that led to him coming off. I thought Bobby & marlon were a real handful today as we'd always hoped they would be.They need to take it on from here.

We've been working on creating chances and tactically today it was important that we get the ball into the front two to allow them to express themselves. We did that today - they were turning on the edge of the box and creating chances for eachother - I think they made a goal for eachother today so that bodes well. I was really, really pleased for Bobby today. He's been injured, then he came back against a team that's won eight on the spin, then he had to play again straight after. Today he showed that he has got the quality for this club. He wants to do well and I hope that that kick-starts a great season for him.

Gillingham are fighting for their lives and they didn't give us an inch. Their players were committed and they gave great effort in the second half. We got a little bit sloppy for whatever reason but you couldn't fault Gillingham in the second half.

We haven't been able to do any work with Matty - he had an injection and his first physical effort was today. we just thought that it would be important to have him on the team sheet today - I thought the psychology of seeing him on the team sheet was important with the run Gillingham have been on. We weren't putting him at risk by playing him and he contributed well to the first 25-30 minutes.

As for Nigel Reo-Coker's injury he picked up a knock on the knee. Looking to the next match we are going to have to patch up a team by the looks of it. We have 5 or 6 carrying injuries and there's not too much light in the way of people coming back. I'll be recalling Adam Nowland for the Chelsea game. I don't think he'll be going back to Gillingham after that.

At home we've been very strong - apart from the Wigan game. The results reflect that. We've now got three away games and we need some bodies to come back. If we get a good points total from that we'll be in a good position.

Calum Davenport will be cup-tied for Wednesday but we think he'll be fit for next Saturday - so if anyone wants to play centre-half at Chelsea put your hand up! (Thankfully for the team AP ignored my raised arm ay this point!)


John Gorman - Gillingham FC

I've just about lost my voice - I've done more shouting at half time over the last two games than I've ever done. I know we've been beaten today by a very good team but lesser teams could have gone to pieces today. West Ham were on form - we started off bright and should have scored when Cox had a good chance and even the Gaffer's got a couple of efforts in. However, weve allowed them to play balls into the feet of Harewood and Zamora. We were very disappointed to let the goal in when we did. It was a good goal from Bobby but that's the way our season's been going. We play well for 20 minutes then we lose a goal from what was really just a long ball up the field.

I'm really proud of the young lads in the team today. I haven't been here long but it seems like circumstances are against us. We lost a guy (Robison) in the warm-up today - he hadn't even kicked a ball. He was just having a jog with the fitness coach when his hamstring went. After all our preparation we were forced into making three tactical changes.

I only sent the young lad Jarvis out to warm up so he could get a feel of things - he's a young lad and it's West Ham and all that. He ended up coming on and playing when he thought he'd be sat next to you guys in the stand! The Gaffer was an example out there. Nine times out of ten we'd have to drag him off but he just kept going. Alan complimented me on the effort we put in against all odds. If we'd scored when Spills hit the post we'd have been right back in the game and they'd have been feeling a bit edgy but we'd given ourselves yet another mountain to climb.

I'm feeling very positive after today - West Ham could have beaten other teams by 5 or 6 but we showed enough charater, spirit and good football for that not to happen. Two wins in this league and you start going up the league. We have two home games coming up and we're really gonna go for it.

We need players in - we picked up 4 injuries today. The worst of them was Darren Byfield who's got 16 stitches in his knee from crashing into the advertisng hoarding. We were worried that it might be his ligaments for a moment but touch wood it's just a very bad cut. I have to say the West Ham players were great when it happened.

Adam Nowland's going back to play for West Ham on Wednesday - I need to speak to Alan about his loan. we'd like to keep him for longer but there's someone else waiting in the wings if necessary and I'm going away to look at a player at the weekend.

There's no way this team is going down - the spirit is too good.



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