Roeder: I'll stay and fight

Glenn Roeder vowed that he would never quit his job as manager of West Ham after a 1-0 defeat at home to Southampton left his team rooted to the foot of the Premiership and still without a league win at Upton Park this season.

Roeder has faith in his players to turn around West Ham’s disastrous season, and he believes they still have faith in him as the manager.

“I am here for the course,” said Roeder. “As far as I am concerned, I love my job.

“I like it more when we win, but I love my job and I love working with the players. I love football and all I have ever done since I was 15 is be involved in football.

“Nothing has ever come easy for me. There are people who have had a silver spoon in their mouth all of their lives and when the going gets tough they take to flight – but that is not my style, I’ll stay and fight.

“I don’t know any other way. That is how I was brought up and that is how I see life, and it is hurting me as much as it is hurting all our die-hard supporters.

“This is where I grew up, this is the club I supported, and we are in a big hole at the moment.

“But we can turn it around, I am confident we can turn it around. If there are any breaks up ahead I just hope they are coming soon.

“The way they have played recently suggests they have still got a lot of faith in me. I will keep going, keep working hard and practising hard with the players, and as long as they keep giving me what I want, there is always a chance.

“There are half a dozen players who literally gave blood and ran themselves into the ground tonight, and while they keep doing that I believe it is possible to turn it around.”

West Ham dominated the first half but failed to take any of their chances, and Southampton finished strongly and nicked the points with an injury-time goal from James Beattie.

“In the first half we didn’t play like a team who were bottom of the table, we just didn’t finish off our chances,” said Roeder – who refused to comment on the fact that a few hundred fans staged a demonstration against the board outside the main gates after the game. “We had some nailed on chances but we never took them.

“It is an old cliché but goals change games and they change the way you feel about yourself and the way the other team feels about you. We are frustrated and angry with ourselves because we didn’t take our chances.”

To add to Roeder’s woes, skipper Paolo Di Canio picked up a knee injury and faces a scan today.

He will be a doubt for Saturday’s trip to Middlesbrough, while Freddie Kanoute will also not be ready.

Gordon Strachan’s team arrived for the game only half an hour before kick-off after their coach was delayed in traffic, and although they were slow to settle he felt the way they finished merited the win.

“In the last half hour we looked more likely to win the game,” said Strachan.

“In the first hour they were the better side and played cup-tie football, high tempo football and good football, and we didn’t match them or do the basics such as in tackles.

“We were too one-dimensional in the first half but in the second half there was more variation. We had to see off their enthusiasm for the first 15 minutes and after that we looked the most likely team to win.

“You have to give credit to their enthusiasm in the first hour, and we were kept in it by individual performances from Michael Svensson, Jason Dodd, Wayne Bridge and our goalkeeper Antti Niemi. As a unit we weren’t that great, but those guys kept us in it with their brave individual defending.

“Defending starts up front and in midfield and we were poor there, which put us under pressure. We couldn’t operate as a unit because we were all over the place.

“It was a good win. I know how hard an injury-time goal hits you because we have had three of them this season, so we were due one, and our bravery kept us in it and our ability won us the game in the end.”