Duo ready to shape title destiny

THIS weekend, they were just mild-mannered mediocrities going about their day jobs. But in a few days, and without having to wear their underpants on the outside, West Ham and Newcastle will be transformed into the men with the destiny of the Premier League title in their hands.

These two teams just happen to be Manchester United and Chelsea’s next opponents, with the Hammers due at Old Trafford on Saturday and Chelsea at St James’ Park a potentially agonising two days afterwards.

West Ham famously won at Old Trafford on the last day of last season to stay up but this time they will only have 10th place to protect, and an injury list that has dogged them all season extends to Freddie Ljungberg, who suffered a cracked rib after colliding with Steven Taylor.

“Perhaps some players who have only seen Old Trafford on the TV might get a chance,” said West Ham manager Alan Curbishley. “It will be another learning curve for one or two of them. Obviously we won’t be going there with the pressure we had on us last year but we want to finish the season as strongly as we can. We will go there and give it our best shot.”

If that was not exactly music to Chelsea’s ears, there was something even less soothing from the mouth of Kevin Keegan, who is also still harping on about being pipped by United more than a decade ago.

“It is our job to help Manchester United win the title and that’s not easy for me to say,” he smiled.

“If we were in Spain now we would be getting an offer from Manchester United to give us a bonus if we beat Chelsea. That can’t ever happen in England. If we beat Chelsea it will be because we deserve to.”

West Ham, booed off the previous week despite winning, sprinted into a two-goal lead thanks to Mark Noble and Dean Ashton. Newcastle eventually awoke and Obafemi Martins scored a fine goal before adding a lucky one off Geremi’s head in first-half stoppage time.

WEST HAM (4-4-2): Green 6, Pantsil 7, Tomkins 7, Neill 7, McCartney 7, Faubert 6 (Solano 90), Noble 7, Parker 7, Ljungberg 5 (Boa Morte 22, 5), Zamora 7 (Cole 78, 5), Ashton 7.

Subs Not Used: Walker, Mullins.

NEWCASTLE: (4-3-1-2): Harper 7, Beye 7, Taylor 7, Edgar 7 (Diatta 90), Enrique 6, Geremi 7, Butt 7, Barton 7, Owen 7, Viduka 6 (Smith 82), Martins 8.

Subs Not Used: Forster, Duff, Carroll.

REFEREE: Uriah Rennie (Sheffield) 6: Decided not to award a penalty against Michael Owen in a carbon-copy of the incident that allowed Chelsea to beat Manchester United.

MATCH RATING: *** This initially looked like a stroll for the home side but it turned into a contest that was first intriguingly even and then needlessly bad-tempered.