West Ham full back Jonathan Spector has no doubt that the current crop of players are good enough to keep the Hammers in the Premier League

West Ham full back Jonathan Spector has no doubt that the current crop of players are good enough to keep the Hammers in the Premier League.

The East End club have been depleted by the injuries to star players Carlton Cole and Matt Upson in recent weeks, leading to some mixed performances.

However, the American international has great faith in his team-mates as they prepare to face Birmingham City at St Andrews.

"At this stage every game is a big game for us," Spector said.

"We know we've got the players to put it right and that's what we'll be looking to do at Birmingham."

"The manager's instilled in us a good work ethic and when things don't go quite right for us and we don't get the result we want the weekend before, starting on

"Monday we work even harder on the training pitch and make it right for the following weekend."

That will have to be the scenario next Saturday as West Ham will face the in-form Blues seven days after a 4-0 hammering by champions Manchester United at the Boleyn.

"I think first half we did alright," he shrugged.

"We moved the ball pretty well at times, we defended well. It was kind of heartbreaking to lose a goal just before the end of the half.

"They scored relatively early in the second half and from that point on we were chasing the game and you've got to try and take a chance to get the points back and against a team like that, opening yourself up to try and get the points, a goal here or there, you know they are going to break."

After Scott Parker played so well in an advanced role against Burnley last week the Hammers faithful were keen to see a repeat from the former Newcastle man.

However Zola asked the midfield dynamo to sit and hold alongside Radoslav Kovac in the centre of the park to negate the threat of Anderson and Darron Gibson, but this often left Paul Scholes free to act as playmaker and do as he pleased.

"It was kind of tactical (to be cautious).

"We know against a team like that if we open ourselves up like we did in the second half we know they are really dangerous on the break, so we wanted to sit back a little bit more and try and get them on the counter," he said.

"In the first half we had a couple of good chances and I think our game plan worked first half.