Rosenior ready to face boyhood club
Liam Rosenior used to go to bed dreaming of West Ham - now he hopes to wake up on Sunday morning having beaten his boyhood club.
With his father Leroy playing for the Hammers between 1988 and 1992, Rosenior was a regular visitor to Upton Park in his formative years.
The club worked its way under his skin - and into his bedroom - but there will be no sense of split loyalty when the Tigers look to build on their impressive defeat of Newcastle last weekend.
"West Ham is a club close to my heart because my dad played for them and I was brought up around the club," said Rosenior.
"It was a fantastic place to be around and I used to watch all their games. I even used to have little West Ham bed sheets!
"I know all about them. But our job is to win games in the Premier League."
The mood around the club is buoyant after the 3-2 win over the Magpies, a first away success to add to their home victory over Norwich.
Rosenior, who made his first start of the season against Newcastle in an unfamiliar left-back role, was pleased with the result but hopes it does not stand out as exceptional by the end of the campaign.
"I'm not being arrogant, or saying we expect to win, but we should aim to win every game," said the 29-year-old.
"That's what we're looking to do...make inroads into the league.
"Going to Newcastle and winning is a big boost to confidence.
"I don't think we want it (the Newcastle result) to be a highlight of our season or to pat ourselves on the back too much."
Rosenior is not guaranteed a starting spot against the Hammers, with Maynor Figueroa back from a spell of compassionate leave to take his usual place on the left side of defence.
But Rosenior impressed manager Steve Bruce with his application at St James' Park and one option could be to switch him to his favoured right-back slot ahead of the more attack-minded Ahmed Elmohamady.
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce believes the Hammers will come up against a Hull side high on confidence after they registered their first away win of the season last weekend when the teams meet at the KC Stadium on Saturday.
Steve Bruce's newly-promoted side won 3-2 at Allardyce's old club Newcastle, the same scoreline by which West Ham went down to Everton at Upton Park.
The Tigers have had a fairly good start to their Barclays Premier League campaign and currently sit two points ahead of West Ham in the table, with Allardyce admitting he has been suitably impressed.
"For them to get their first away win was a huge result, it lifts the whole city, the backroom staff and all the players," he said.
"We face them at a time when their confidence is sky-high so as always we'll have a tough game on our hands.
"His [Bruce's] players, irrespective of how many he's changed, have gelled well which was the opposite to his time at Sunderland.
"At Hull he's changed a lot of players and it's worked for him very, very well in a short period of time and they've obviously started the season exceptionally well."
West Ham's own victory last weekend saw them bring to an end a barren run in front of goal.
Highly-rated midfielder Ravel Morrison has continued to impress since working his way in to the team and Allardyce believes the former Manchester United youngster is playing well enough to maintain his place.
"At the moment his performances are exceptionally good and that means you don't have to fight for your place," said Allardyce.
"If you're good enough then you're old enough and he's proved that up to now. We've got to keep his feet firmly on the ground and watch out for head swelling."
Despite breaking their goalscoring duck against Everton Allardyce remains keen to strengthen his striking options in the wake of Andy Carroll's pre-season heel injury.
Mladen Petric was signed on a free transfer and former Hammer Carlton Cole will soon join him once Allardyce is convinced by the England international's fitness.
"We've had Carlton training with us for a while now and as soon as he's fit enough to play there will be an offer of a short-term contract on the table, there's no doubt about that," he confirmed.
"That's why he's here with us and that's why we're trying to improve his fitness having missed pre-season. As soon as he's okay and suitable terms and conditions have been agreed, which is nothing do with me, then he'll join us for however long the contract is negotiated for.
"We'll play a couple of behind-closed-doors games just to let him get some match practice and then we'll take it from there."
Source: PA
