Upson: Premier League suvival for West Ham ‘a huge achievement’
Skipper buoyed by Everton performance
WEST Ham skipper Matthew Upson believes it will take a ‘monumental effort’ to keep the Hammers in the Premier League.
The east Londoners have suffered just two defeats in nine and are two points from safety, yet still prop up the rest.
“I think we are in the worst position at this stage of the season that I have experienced. It would be a huge achievement for us to maintain safety this year,” Upson admitted.
“It is not unachievable and I think we all still believe that we can do it. But it is going to be a monumental effort and we are ready for the fight.”
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Forty points is always the benchmark set for safety and must be the target for a West Ham side still 19 off the total with 14 games left.
West Ham struggle, even panic when leading, with last Saturday’s draw with Everton the latest example, when they twice threw away leads with the second coming in injury time.
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“I think there is a little bit of a confidence problem. Jonathan Spector slipped over on their second goal as well, so it is little things like that,” Upson said.
“Some of it is bad luck, but it just seems that all the tiny little defects we do have are being exploited all the time. When they are bombarding our box, we have got to try and keep our shape a bit.
“It is difficult when the ball is crossed in, we are heading out and it comes in again and I felt we got a little bit ragged with our positioning.
“We didn’t cover the areas we needed to, especially the first one when the guy struck it from the edge of the box with a lot of space, but we was unlucky, I think Freddie got a little touch on it and it is just all these little things, they all add up and it has cost us two goals.”
What made it all the more frustrating is the impressive performance put in by the visitors who deserved all three points.
“In the position we are in, I think we need to come to places like this and win, so we are disappointed,” he said.
“I think you only have to watch us play today. We had a lot of hunger, a lot of desire to want to win the ball and get hold of the ball. If we maintain that level of attitude and performance, I think we can accumulate the points to stay up.”
