With captain Christian Dailly going under the surgeon's knife for an exploratory operation on his knee injury, West Ham manger Alan Pardew is urging his defence to be more stingy.

Although the Hammers have kept two clean sheets in their first three games, they have looked far from convincing.

And in Dailly's absence against Wigan they were breached three times, with the Latics finding it all to easy to dominate West Ham in the air.

Pardew was far from happy with that display.

"Any team gains confidence from its defending and how tight you look," he said.

"Against Wigan we never looked tight all day. We lost headers in our box and we lost too many battles all over the pitch."

Dailly's absence - which could extend to a month away, depending on the outcome of yesterday's surgery - was keenly felt, as was the loss of midfielder Steve Lomas.

"We knew Wigan were going to be motivated after what happened against them last year but we had no one to step forward for us in that first half," added Pardew.

"We were really struggling without Christian and Steve Lomas."

Published Wednesday August 18, 2004

Brought to you by the Evening Echo