West Ham United v Birmingham City
Monday 13 February 2006 20:00
HISLOP REVEALS WORLD CUP DREAM
Shaka Hislop hopes a run in the West Ham United side can boost his dream of playing in this summer’s World Cup finals.
The veteran goalkeeper will be between the posts again for tonight’s televised Barclays Premiership clash with Birmingham City at Upton Park because of a back injury to Roy Carroll.
It is another opportunity for Hislop, who will be 37 later this month, to show Trinidad & Tobago coach Leo Beenhakker he should be first choice in Germany, where they will face England, Sweden and Paraguay in Group B.
Fulham’s Tony Warner and Clayton Ince of Coventry City are both also included in the squad to face Iceland in a friendly at the end of February.
And Hislop hopes the chance of first-team football in the Barclays Premiership will help press his claim for a starting place.
“Nothing has really changed in that respect as I was always trying to push Roy as hard as I could, although now I suppose I have added reason to,” said Hislop, who returned to West Ham in the summer after being released by Portsmouth.
“I will be trying my hardest to get into the side and hold onto the shirt as long as possible because recently I have also been the number two for Trinidad.
“I am sure that if I can get a good run in the West Ham team, it would hopefully see me move up the pecking order internationally so I can play a big part in the summer.”
The Hammers will be looking for a seventh straight win tonight - one which would all but secure their top-flight status for another season.
Hislop said: “We have shown not only to everybody else, but more importantly to ourselves that we are good enough for this league and that the football we play will take us places and get us results.”
Steve Bruce has insisted he will “leave no stone unturned” to find why Birmingham are continually dogged by long-term injury problems.
The Blues chief has even hinted the club’s St Andrews pitch - newly laid last summer - may be a factor.
Bruce could have up to 11 players sidelined for tonight’s encounter.
The likes of David Dunn, Stan Lazaridis, Muzzy Izzet and Mikael Forssell have all had spells out of action of 12 months or more, leaving Bruce in a state of despair at times.
He said: “I hate to make excuses about injuries but we have got to seriously look at why we are getting so many injuries all of the time.
“I can’t put my finger on it. I have been a manager for nearly 10 years and I have been at Birmingham four years and I have never known anything like this.
“It is an unbelievable situation we find ourselves in. I will definitely leave no stone unturned to see if there is anything we can do to improve matters.
“We relaid a new pitch in the summer. It is something we are going to have to look into because they make pitches now much, much firmer than they used to be.
“That is why most pitches look good, and ours does for the time of year, but it is really firm and hard so maybe we will just blame it on that. Maybe it is something to do with that. Who knows?
“We will try to look at anything. Our training ground has been the same for the last three-and-a-half years so we can’t look at anything there which might be to blame.”
Bruce added: “If you look at the injuries we have got, most of them are muscular but two or three of them are twists. We have tried to do everything we possibly can but most times it seems to be happening in games.
“Three weeks ago we had everyone fit when we played Portsmouth. You were thinking then, ‘Hallelujah - at last a full squad’ and three weeks later we are down to ridiculous numbers again.”
The majority of Matthew Upson, Dunn, Izzet, Chris Sutton, Neil Kilkenny, Lazaridis and Olivier Tebily are unlikely to play against the Hammers while Emile Heskey and Damien Johnson are suspended.
But DJ Campbell and Martin Latka are eligible after missing the FA Cup replay win over Reading as Birmingham look to cut the six-point gap between themselves and fourth bottom West Bromwich Albion.
West Ham United (from): Hislop, Scaloni, Ferdinand, Gabbidon, Konchesky, Benayoun, Newton, Mullins, Reo-Coker, Etherington, Harewood, Zamora, Ashton, Sheringham, Katan, Bywater, Dailly, Clarke, Fletcher.
Birmingham City (from): Maik Taylor, Melchiot, Cunningham, Latka, Bruce, Painter, Gray, Pennant, Clapham, Clemence, Birley, Jarosik, Forssell, Heskey, Sutton, Campbell, Martin Taylor.
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