Pardew Wants World Class Players

Since Pardew signed Dean Ashton the West Ham board have been saying that the majority of this summer's transfer budget has already been spent. However today Sky Sports report that Pardew "is expected to be given a hefty transfer budget in the summer." Pardew has said that with this he wants to bring in a couple of "world class" players. Whether West Ham could attract a couple of "world class" players is of course another question.

However if Pardew can bring in a couple of players who are immediate first team choices we might be able to sustain a decent European cup campaign. Mullins' suspension from the FA Cup final has emphasised the lack of depth in the Hammers' squad, which had already been exposed in the busy league and cup campaign of the last two months.

Of course at the beginning of the season I thought in April I would be worrying about relegation not whether I could get an FA Cup final ticket and whether the club had the squad for a European campaign.

Mullins Appeal Turned Down

The FA have turned down West Ham's appeal against Hayden Mullin's red card picked up against Liverpool. This means that Mullins will now be banned for three games; Monday's game against West Bromwich Albion, the final Premiership game against Spurs and the FA Cup final.

I can't help feeling that West Ham have been hard done by. Liverpool will hardly miss the diving Garcia whilst Mullins is essential to West Ham's midfield and the club have little effective cover in this position.

West Ham to Appeal Against Red Card

Alan Pardew and Benitez joined forces last night in a bid to spare Mullins and Garcia three match bans. Referee Howard Webb sent both players off yeaterday for violent conduct, resulting in an automatic three-match ban and ruling both players out for the rest of the season, including the FA Cup final in Cardiff on May 13.

The managers held an impromptu meeting immediately after the final whistle, and emerged united in a plea for clemency from the FA for both players. West Ham and Liverpool will now appeal against the red cards.

West Ham 1 Liverpool 2

Ashton, Harewood, Hislop and Konchesky were rested for this game. Liverpool also started without Gerrard, Hyypia, Riise, Luis Garcia and Alonso. The Reds enjoyed the better of the play for most of the first half and in the 18th minutes Cisse scored the opening goal from 25 yards.

In the last ten minutes of the half West Ham began to create opportunities for themselves and Sheringham and Benayoun both had good chances with their heads, unfortunately both missed.

However, as on Sunday, West Ham came out after the break with all guns blazing and within 15 seconds of the restart had equalised. Sheringham, from the just outside the box, passed to Zamora, Zamora rolled the ball on for Reo-Coker, who then knocked it into the goal from six yards out. Straight from the restart Morientes beat Walker with a shot, only for the ball to hit the post. Seven minutes later Cisse didn't miss, when Fowler him put through with a pass from his own half.

Hayden Mullins and Luis Garcia were both sent off with 8 minutes to go and will now both miss the final. Garcia was elbowing and pushing Mullins and Mullins threw a punch at the Spaniard. West Ham had a few near misses before the end of the game, but losing Mullins for the final is far worse than losing this game.

Tribute to John Lyall

Over 30 ex-Hammers players who had the privilege of working with John are attending tonight's game and will be introduced on the pitch before the kick-off. Amongst those attending are Sir Trevor Brooking, Paul Allen, Ronnie Boyce, Bobby Barnes, Ken Brown, Paul Brush, Tony Carr, David Cross, Alan Curbishley, Mervyn Day, Alan Devonshire, Brian Dear, Bobby Gould, Paul Goddard, George Parris, Pat Holland, Billy Jennings, Kevin Keen, Vic Keeble, Alvin Martin, Mick McGiven, Jimmy Neighbour, Phil Parkes, Geoff Pike, Steve Potts, Keith Robson, Alan Taylor and Steve Walford.

Other News Schoolboy midfielder Tom Harvey will sign his first full-time contract with West Ham tonight. Harvey, who represents England at under-16 level, has been at Upton Park since the age of 10 and will join the Academy playing staff this summer. A dynamic midfielder with bags of energy, Tom has already made several appearances for the under-18 side this season and travelled with the reserve team on a number of occasions.

Trevor Brooking Next England Manager

Strange rumours abound tonight that West Ham legend Trevor Brooking is about to be named the next England manager. However Brooking will never get to manage a game as this will only be a 'technical appointment' until Portugal manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, is available after the World Cup.

This strange situation could arise because Scolari is said to be refusing to accept the job 'officially' whilst he is still manager of another country. Therefore Brooking could be named the next England manager early next week . However he will resign as soon as the World Cup finishes, before even taking up the job, when Scolari's appointment will be officially announced.

Of course this could all be rubbish and Fat Sam could be appointed instead.

West Ham vs Liverpool

Our league games are increasingly looking like dress rehearsals for our FA Cup encounters. Tomorrow night we face our FA Cup final opponents Liverpool at Upton Park.

Liverpool have won their last six games in the League and also beat Chelsea in the cup on Saturday. West Ham have failed to beat The Reds in their last seven encounters and have lost the last three. In fact West Ham have not beaten Liverpool since a 1-0 success at Upton Park on 27 November 1999.

However Liverpool have little to play for in the league, they have altready secured Champions League football, and realistically can't catch United in second place.

The Harewood Goal & The Pardew Shuffle

Boro 0 West Ham 1

YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

Boro had the best of the first half, creating the more chances and having more possession of the ball. They put five players across the midfield and the West Ham defence were forced to knock hopeful balls over the top. Harewood and Ashton however were unable to win their fair share of these long balls as the Boro defence coped well with the arial battle. In fact the West Ham strikers only real contribution to the first half was Ashton breaking Schwarzer's cheek bone.

Apart from the loss of their goalkeeper the other regret Boro would have had was that they didn't create more. Their two clearest chances both were headed over the bar, Queudrue from a corner and Hasselbaink from a right wing cross. The best chance for West Ham came five minutes from the break, when Reo-Coker won a battle with Boateng in the Boro penalty area and the ball fell to Benayoun. But the Israeli shot his half volley a couple of yards over the bar.

In the second half West Ham came out flying. They had Boro penned back in their own penalty area for the first fifteen minutes. On the 54th minute Ashton headed against the bar from a corner and four minutes later headed straight at the goalie from another corner. On the 60th minute Reo-Coker got the ball on the left wing, beat Boateng and unleashed a shot that just missed the right hand post.

On 77 minutes the long ball finally worked for West Ham. Ferdinand knocked a 70 yrd ball forward, Ashton won the header on the edge of the box and Harewood ran onto it to shoot into the back of the net with his left foot from just inside the area. West Ham then faced a frantic 15 minutes as Boro threw everything forward.

On 82 minutes Hasselbaink ran with the ball straight at the West Ham box and Collins brought him down on the edge of the box. From the resulting freekick Hislop saved well diving to his right. On 88 minutes Macccorone shot wide from ten yards out. For some strange reason five minutes extra time was then added on. In extra time Downing shot over form a freekick from the edge of the box and Riggott had an excellent effort from five yards out with only Hislop to beat but he shot wide.

Come on you Irons!

Key Battles Today

Stuart Downing vs Anton Ferdinand / Scaloni

Stopping Stuart Downing on the left wing could be one of the key battles in today's game. I suspect Pardew will not trust Scaloni's lack of pace and that the quicker Anton will find himself at right back again. Ferdinand doesn't like the position but stopping Downing's distribution will be important.

Reo-Coker vs Boateng

Boateng is Boro's sitting defender, his job is to protect his back four and he is very good at it. He could be even more important today for Boro if their experienced defender Southgate is injured. It will be important for West Ham that Reo-Coker does enough to keep Boateng busy, this should give Benayoun more freedom when he drifts in field, and more room for Teddy drifting back if he comes on late in the game.

Rate the Players at the BBC

The BBC are trying out a new player rating system for the two FA Cup semi-final games. Instead of their reporters deciding on how the players have performed they are letting fans decide. Follow the link above and submit your marks out of 10. The aggregated scores, based on all submitted entries, will be displayed and continually updated as new scores come in.

My prediction is 10 out of 10 for all the boys in claret and blue. We haven't played well in recent games but this season we have won a number of games late on. The Boro should be physically and mentally tired after their mid-week European game, so I think we could win this one in the last quarter of an hour. Come on you Hammers!