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West Ham v Birmingham

Soccernets preview:
Alan Pardew will always be grateful to Steve Bruce for some sound advice during one of the toughest periods of his managerial career, but aims to do the Birmingham boss no favours on the pitch.

When Pardew wanted to take on the challenge of his current job at West Ham in September 2003, Reading initially refused to let him go, and attempted to obtain a court injunction to prevent him from being employed by a competing club.

Eventually it was agreed he could assume control of the Hammers, but on the condition he take one month's ``gardening leave'' and the east-London club pay #380,000 in compensation.

It was at that time when Bruce called Pardew to pass on some words of wisdom from his own experience of such a troubling situation, an unexpected show of solidarity from a colleague which meant a lot to the Hammers chief.

``When I moved to West Ham from Reading and I had a court case pending, and gardening leave, Steve rang me, because obviously he had a situation at Crystal Palace as well,'' Pardew recalled.

``His advice wasn't easy to hear, but it was very good advice and he helped me big-time because it was a difficult period and not something any manager wants to go through.''

With 38 points already on the board following an impressive return to the Premier League after winning the play-offs last May, the pressure is relieved to some extent - which Pardew believes can help his side maintain their free-flowing style.

``We are in a position to attack the next few games because we are not desperate for a result,'' he said. ``In some ways, we can tear into teams and see what we get.''

Pardew added: ``I am sure it will be an attractive game because Birmingham are desperate for a win. That might make it an open game - and we have been involved in a few of those.''

Bruce has admitted he made a ``big mistake'' in only having three senior strikers at his disposal for the first half of the season.

Bruce had only Emile Heskey, Mikael Forssell and Walter Pandiani to call upon after the departure of Clinton Morrison to Crystal Palace.

With Forssell struggling for fitness and Pandiani out of form, it left a huge responsibility on the shoulders of Heskey even though the former Liverpool player responded in positive fashion.

Blues were woefully lacking in goal-power and only in January was Bruce able to redress the situation, off-loading Pandiani but bringing in Sutton and Brentford's FA Cup hero DJ Campbell.

Bruce told PA Sport: ``For five months we basically had Heskey on his own and he did an excellent job.

``Walter failed to reproduce what he had shown when on loan last season and the injuries to Mikael, and the time needed to get over them, have been well documented. We went into the season with three strikers. Possibly that was a big mistake in hindsight. We took a gamble there and it left us short and we couldn't do anything about it until the transfer window.''

With Heskey suspended and Sutton struggling to overcome a groin problem, Bruce may have to give a full debut to Campbell at West Ham.

It would be a massive step up for a player who was with non-league Yeading last season but Campbell showed enough in 20 minutes as a substitute against Arsenal to suggest he can make the grade.

Bruce said: ``In those 20 minutes, DJ was never fazed at all. You can see he is desperate to do well. He has worked in a warehouse for two to three years and is determined to try and take this opportunity.

``I personally think he is going to have a big important role to play over the next eight to ten weeks and he might nick us a couple of goals which could help to keep us in the Premier League.''

Sutton, Matthew Upson, Martin Taylor, David Dunn, Muzzy Izzet, Stan Lazaridis, Neil Kilkenny, Olivier Tebily are major injury doubts while, in addition to Heskey, Damien Johnson is also suspended.

But skipper Kenny Cunningham has a chance of being fit after his groin injury while Martin Latka and Campbell will return after being ineligible for the FA Cup-replay victory over Reading.

....I've been thinking about this all day as I really cant see anything other than a West Ham win tbh.....but I had to convince myself I wasnt being biased Birmingham need something here really but injuries arent helping. I'm sure Cunningham was supposed to be out longer than this & he may well be rushing back.
West Ham have won 6 on the bounce & apart from 2 games over xmas, have scored in their last 15 games, with 15 in the last 6.
I was swaying towards over 2.5 goals but I cant convince myself that Blues will score & 3-0 is too much of a gamble I think.

West Ham 10 points @ Stan James 4/5