Single-minded Pardew set to make changes

Alan Pardew may well be forced to shuffle his pack for tomorrow night’s Carling Cup tie at Bolton – but the West Ham manager insists: ‘We are going for the win.'

Many top-flight bosses have viewed the competition as the perfect opportunity to blood youngsters and give their fringe players a chance to impress, sometimes at a cost to the chances of victory.

Pardew, though, knows results breed confidence and is determined to maintain the Hammers’ promising opening to the new season with a decent cup run.

“I want this club to win trophies,” Pardew declared. “We are going to go there to try to win the game.

“Taking on Bolton at home is a tricky match, but we will go into in it in good spirits.”

With several first-team players – including defenders Anton Ferdinand and Paul Konchesky, as well as midfielder Matthew Etherington – reporting fitness concerns following the victory over Middlesbrough on Sunday, Pardew admits changes could be forced upon him at the Reebok Stadium tomorrow.

“We have got some fresh players, and I will certainly look to introduce a couple because we have a few knocks,” revealed the Hammers boss, who takes his side to Liverpool on Saturday.

“Will the team change? I think it will be forced on me.”

Pardew’s blend of youth and experience appears to be paying dividends so far, with the Hammers now back in the top 10 of the Barclays Premiership following Sunday’s victory, which was helped in part by a controversial decision from assistant referee Ralph Bone to award them a second goal.

However, a run of just two defeats from their opening nine league games, nevertheless, goes to show the east London side – promoted via the play-offs - are certainly a hard side to beat.

One of those losses, though, came at home to Bolton at the end of August.

Assistant manager Peter Grant maintains the Hammers have learnt a lot from that encounter.

“We probably dominated 95% of the game, yet still ended up losing 2-1,” reflected Grant, 40, who made more than 350 appearances for Celtic.

“I think that was a wake-up call for us to realise we were in the Premier League, where you can have games where you dominate and still end up losing.

“That was a learning experience for us.”

West Ham booked their place in the third round of the Carling Cup with a 4-2 victory at Sheffield Wednesday, where the likes of youngsters Tony Stokes, Chris Cohen, Elliott Ward, James Collins and Gavin Williams all got a run-out.

While Pardew may go for more experience from his squad men than he did against the Coca-Cola Championship strugglers, Grant maintains the manager will always select the strongest side possible.

“We made a few changes the last time, but we didn’t play our reserves,” insisted Grant.

“We did it to give guys games who nine times out of 10 would have been in the first team.

“We want to win every game we take part in because that builds confidence in the team and around the workplace. People feel good when they are winning.

“If we had lost that game people wouldn’t have said: ‘Oh well, it was the reserves.’ They would have said: ‘We lost that game.’ That’s the bottom line.”