A trip to Wigan is not a game to conjure up romantic thoughts of FA Cup glory - but West Ham boss Alan Pardew is demanding a good cup run from his players.

"It's the FA Cup and I always get inspired by that," said the one-time cup finalist with Crystal Palace. "It's tricky for us - Wigan is not an easy place to go and get a win.

"The whole competition is getting harder for Nationwide League clubs - in the past sometimes endeavour and commitment, and maybe a bit of luck, could sometimes get you there. Now it's not usually enough - you can't get away from that massive gap between the Premiership and the rest.

"But it is a good competition. I want to breed a winning culture at this club because we are not winning as many games as we should.

"We are conscious of that and hopefully we can start on a good cup run on Saturday."

A cup run can also be a valuable source of income, and could give the chance to test West Ham's credentials against the top Premiership clubs.

"I'd like to get to the semi-finals before having to face one of the big sides, but we gauged ourselves by the way we played against Spurs and the way we've played the top sides in this league," said Pardew.

"We have done well there and shown we can give anybody a game, but we are not seeing off the so-called lesser teams."

The loss of Jermain Defoe, who starts a five-match ban, means a selection headache for Pardew as stand-in striker Brian Deane is still injured.

But the changes are not expected to be permanent, despite the on-going transfer rumours surrounding the 21-year-old striker.

"It might change the shape of the team," he admitted. "On Sunday we had Marlon Harewood, David Connolly and Jermain in the side and for the first time we had integrated them and looked to have that balance right.

"When Jermain comes back we will have to do that again - and I expect to have him back after the ban."

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Published Friday January 2, 2004

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