Slaven Bilic’s decision to take Andy Carroll out of the action was purely for “precautionary reasons.”

The manager explained that the big man is still feeling a groin problem but explained that he would be fine and that there is “no problem”.

And David Gold told us: “There is no major issue and  with the game won, the manager, rightly in my opinion, saw no point in risking things.

Slaven certainly seems to have found the key to keeping the striker in reasonable ‘nick’ by not overworking him on the training pitch.

And he also feels that the new responsibility the player has found since settling down and having a child in the family is making a lot of difference to his attitude and outlook.