West Ham want revenge

WEST HAM are gunning for revenge against Birmingham this Sunday and full back Lars Jacobsen is convinced man for man Hammers are a better side.

The Blues inflicted agony on their east London opponents last Wednesday after completing a 3-2 Carling Cup semi final aggregate win after extra time at St Andrews to book a trip to Wembley and face Arsenal.

West Ham took the lead last Wednesday through Carlton Cole and have done so in each of the three meetings so far, but have only the first leg victory to show for their troubles.

West Ham have started strongly, taken a lead but sat back and struggled to deal with the Birmingham aerial bombardment letting their leads slip, while the sending off of Victor Obinna in the first leg did little to help their chances.

“I think the lads are looking forward to that game. We showed when we played Birmingham here – as long as we were 11 versus 11, we were the better team,” Jacobsen said.

“It’s one of those games you need to win at home, Birmingham. They are also at the bottom of the league, but we have to take one game at a time.

“I think the rest of the games of the season are like cup finals for us, because we need to take points every time.

“We’re doing ever so well in the cups and we do need to take that into the Premier League so we can get some more points.”

West Ham are 19 points off the magical 40, a benchmark for Premier League survival with 14 matches left.

They are more likely to achieve that target with Jacobsen fit and healthy. The full back made his return to first team action in Sunday’s 3-2 FA Cup Fourth Round win over Forest after missing the last two months with an Achilles injury.

“It was very frustrating. I haven’t been out for two months, but I haven’t played football for two months,” he said.

“It took me about half an hour to get started today. I was very rusty in the beginning, and haven’t been playing competitive football for two months, so it was hard to get into it.

“But I felt very good in the second half, and physically I felt alright. I’m just happy that I got through and I didn’t feel my injury any more. I’m happy about that.

“I’m just looking forward and hopefully I’ll get some more games in the future.”