CHAIRMAN'S PROGRAMME NOTES: WEST HAM

Main Club Sponsor

TICKETS

SHOP

Read the Chairman's notes ahead of the game

2021-12-12T12:14:16.103Z

CHAIRMAN'S PROGRAMME NOTES: WEST HAM

Read the Chairman's notes ahead of the game

2021-12-12T12:14:16.103Z

Alan's notes ahead of this afternoon's game

Welcome to Turf Moor for today’s game against West Ham United. It’s my pleasure to extend a warm welcome to the players, staff, directors and supporters who have made the journey from London today.

We’ve welcomed many teams from the capital in recent months with West Ham following Tottenham, Brentford and Crystal Palace as our fourth consecutive home game in all competitions against London-based clubs.

That list should have included Tottenham again, but of course we were disappointed that our last home game was forced into cancellation due to heavy snow making the pitch unplayable. Despite the best efforts of our fantastic groundsmen and the 60 or so other members of staff across multiple departments who joined us in grabbing shovels we were unable to get the game underway. While it was a disappointment, player and supporter safety is paramount and we’ll look forward to replaying the game in 2022.

Hopefully a return to Turf Moor will help us recapture the good form we were showing before the disappointing 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United at St James’ Park.

The Premier League is looking as tight as it ever has been with us three points from safety but just 10 points from the top half of the table. Hopefully a positive result will kick us back into form after a run of eight games without a defeat before Newcastle – another run like that will be a big help in moving us away from danger.

West Ham have turned into a fantastic team under David Moyes and have looked completely worthy of their position in the Champions League places so no doubt the team will need to be at their best today to get a positive result, but I have utmost faith that the team will be ready to give it their all once the game kicks off.

I also want to congratulate our youth team on making the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup after an excellent 3-0 win over Luton Town - youth and development is one of our key focuses at the club as we aim to take the club forever forward, so to see our youngsters put in such a commanding performance was a pleasure to see. Congratulations to Tony Philliskirk and the team.

Finally, I want to wish the best of luck to Burnley FC Women who face Liverpool in the third round of the Women’s FA Cup. Our historic run to meet Manchester United was something of a fairy-tale last year and I was delighted to see Matt Bee and the team draw another giant to help continue the team’s development.