Striker confident Hammers can keep their good league form going

Carlton Cole is hopeful this Saturday’s game against Tottenham will push West Ham a step closer to Premier League safety.

The Hammers currently occupy the last spot in the relegation zone, but a win this weekend at bitter rivals Spurs could lift them out of the bottom three.

The east Londoners have won their last two league games on the spin and Cole is confident that winning run will continue.

“It’s a massive game next Saturday and I think all the lads are going to be really up for this one,” he said.

“And now we can just concentrate on the league and just get our nut down to try and get as far up the table as possible.”

The Hammers exited the FA Cup last Sunday at the quarter final stage after losing 2-1 to Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium in a game Cole feels West ham failed to do themselves justice.

“I think the whole game was a bit of an anti-climax for us. I don’t really think that we went out there and gave our best performance, but then again I felt the conditions didn’t suit us,” he said.

“They left the pitch dry. We are a footballing side and the pitch was not great for playing our sort of game.”

“For myself, I would have liked to have had a bit more of a go at goal, but they were all long balls. I didn’t get the sort of balls I needed and their two defenders were tough to play against.

“I think we actually played into their hands. I had to deal with a lot of long balls in the air and playing against those two is really hard, because if I dealt with one, then the other one was there to deal with.”

Referee Mike Jones was roundly criticized by West Ham boss Avram Grant and Scott Parkerand although Cole acknowledges the official did not have the best of games, stopped short of blaming him for their cup exit.

“I don’t really like to talk about referees, because I like to give them a fair crack of the whip, but I thought he could have done better today for us,” he said.

“It just didn’t work out that way, I’m not going to blame him for the defeat, because it was partly down to the players as well, but the way the game was conducted at times was not in our favour.”

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