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Jewell Delighted and Looking Forward to Happy Birthday
Jewell Delighted and Looking Forward to Happy Birthday
Tuesday, 27th Sep 2011 22:54 by TWTD.co.uk

Blues boss Paul Jewell felt his side thoroughly deserved their 1-0 victory over West Ham at Upton Park with former Hammer Lee Bowyer netting a late winner. The result was an early birthday present for Jewell, who celebrates his 47th birthday on Wednesday.

Jewell said: “I thought in the first half we were terrific, we passed the ball really well. Chops had a good opportunity and we’ve hit the inside of the post.

“Obviously they were always going to be a threat from set pieces and stuff, but I thought we really passed the ball well in the first half and should have gone in ahead. In the second half we weren’t quite as fluid but we dug in and were resilient.”

The Blues boss says Upton Park is somewhere he enjoys visiting: “It’s quite strange, when I was at Wigan, we used to beat West Ham most times here and they used to always beat us at home.

“It’s a great place to come and play football. It’s a lovely stadium, it’s a passionate ground. We knew we had to do a job on the crowd first and try and keep the ball and try and make them impatient. Credit to our players, I thought in the first half we were terrific.”

Jewell, whose side are up to 11th but on the same points as Peterborough in seventh, was pleased with the way his team kept going to the final whistle, despite most of them having played a lot of football over the last week: “It’s three games in eight days and it’s been the same team.

“Football’s a funny old game, as they say, and confidence is there. A month ago we looked bereft of ideas. We looked as if we couldn’t pick our feet up. We’ve had a little bit of a change of fortune and the players are full of confidence.”

The Town manager says Bowyer has a good goals record against his old club: “I think I read in the programme Mark Noble saying that Lee Bowyer has a habit of scoring against West Ham. It was obviously a great moment for him getting his first goal for us.

“In the first half I was expecting the one that hit the post to go in. You start to wonder if it’s going to be your night, but we kept going and on the break we had some good situations that we didn’t make the most of, but fair play to the players, I thought we deserved the win tonight.”

The clean sheet was Town’s third in a row, the first time they have achieved such a run since March 2005 when they beat Bristol City 6-0, Cardiff City 1-0 and then drew 0-0 with Gillingham.

Jewell was full of praise for his two new centre-halves: “They’ve been terrific, Sonko and Danny Collins. You know what you’re going to get out of them — honesty.

“It’s a tough place to come. Carlton Cole and then John Carew on as substitute, they’re a handful and we did really well. We’re not the biggest team in the world and I was pleased with that side of the game as well.”

Overall, the Town manager was looking forward to Wednesday’s birthday celebrations: “It’s a great birthday present, it’ll make the 40th tomorrow very happy!”

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce was angry that his side conceded their fourth late goal of the season but admitted his team were second best, particularly in the first half.

Allardyce says the Blues are the best team the Hammers have played so far and expects them to be in the shake-up come May: “For two years now they’ve spent a lot of money. What was it £18-£20 million that Roy spent in his first year?

“Jagger [Jewell] hasn’t spent that much but like myself has picked up some good experienced players that have got a lot of experience in the Premier League.

“They came together very nicely in the Coventry game and at Middlesbrough, and certainly today they’ve punished us.

“I think they’re as good a side as we’ve met, I have to say, even though we were poor and I was disappointed with the way we played. Some of that you have to put down to how well Ipswich played.”

Story syndicated from TWTD.co.uk

Photo: Action Images



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