Sam Allardyce says his team will be "playing for pride" when they face Manchester City in the second leg of the Capital One Cup semi final.
The League Cup, in its various guises, is a competition West Ham have never won despite having reached the Final twice - against West Brom back in 1966 and Liverpool in 1981 - and the semi finals on no less than nine occasions (or ten, if you include 1999's quarter final win over Aston Villa for which a replay was ordered).Having been thumped 6-0 in the first leg at the Etihad Stadium, United's chances of adding a third Final appearance would appear to be slim, at the very best - or more accurately, almost completely impossible. However Allardyce, speaking to the press at Chadwell Heath this morning promised to field a team of sufficient quality to "get something out of it."
"Hopefully we can give Manchester City a really tough game Tuesday night and try to get something out of it," he said.
"It's about playing a game of football in a competitive manner at home and trying to win it. It's as simple as that. We know it's highly, highly unlikely that we we're going to get through but you're playing at home, you're playing for pride, you're playing to try and get a result and your team's trying to play well.
"I have a couple of players back from suspension, which is important. Kevin Nolan and James Tomkins will have a competitive game after being suspended which eases the problems that we've had recently. Andy Carroll will get another game which is obviously another important factor for us.
"We'll have a strong team out. Apart from probably Ravel Morrison, who's still early in his career at this level of football, we will not have anybody of any inexperience out on the field. The rest of the team will be very, very experienced at this level."
Allardyce also revealed that he was pleased with Carroll's progress and hopes that it won't be too long before he's fit enough to be considered for a starting spot.
"We're talking about increasing his game time and we have to be patient enough to increase that in competitive matches, where we're desperate for results," he said. "Our desperation for a result on Tuesday is about pride rather than points in the Premier League.
"Andy's going to compete in a game just a few days after competing on Saturday which is something we're looking forward to, knowing that he's getting even closer to a full 90 minutes. Our other scenario is to get Joey O'Brien, Winston Reid and George McCartney back and playing as quickly as we can."
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