Hammers can topple Toon - Mears

Tyrone Mears insists West Ham can return to winning ways against Newcastle and bury the disappointment of their UEFA Cup setback.

The Hammers were beaten 1-0 by Serie A side Palermo at Upton Park on Thursday and face a major challenge to erase that deficit in the return leg and book a place in the UEFA Cup group stages

West Ham have not kept a clean sheet all season and they are without a win in four games.

But Mears is convinced the Hammers are just a slice of good fortune away from going on a decent run – and he wants that to start against Newcastle.

“We have a squad full of quality players that can turn things around,” said Mears, who moved to Upton Park in the summer from Preston.

“Newcastle are a big club, and it will be a tough match. But we are a big club, we’re at home and we will definitely be looking to go out there and get three points against them.

“The last few games, the results haven’t gone for us as such. But we have still shown in our performances that we can dig in and get something out of it like against Charlton.

“It nearly happened at Liverpool, and we came back against Aston Villa. Of course, you want to string some wins together – but it’s still very early in the season.

“If we can get a bit of luck added to what we know we can do then we’re going to be firing for sure.”

Carlos Tevez did force an excellent save from the Palermo goalkeeper, and Marlon Harewood hit the post in the second half.

But West Ham could not break down the Italians’ resolute defence.

It is a problem they must overcome for the second leg – and Mears is convinced the Hammers can click right back into gear against Newcastle tomorrow.

“Against Palermo, I thought we were unlucky – especially in the first half. It just wasn’t happening out there for us. On another day, we could have had four or five in the bag,” Mears told his club’s website, www.whufc.com.

“It was just little things that didn’t work out for us, but the aim now is to turn that around and into three points in the league at the weekend.

“We can take a lot of positives from this game and can definitely put them to good use in the next couple of weeks.”