Unfazed ‘Psycho’ shrugs off injury crisis

Stuart Peace has told the youngsters to grab their chances when the Irons travel to Wigan for the fourth round of the FA Cup tomorrow (Sat).

And unlike many of us ‘Psycho’ is entirely unfazed by the number of players laid off through injury at the moment.

Speaking ahead of the game he said: “I’ve never been one of those coaches or managers who worries about having certain players out through injury, and make no mistake we have got a few injuries at the moment

“I always see it as a great opportunity for players to come in and stake a claim, especially young players.

“Going back to the start of my career in non-league football [at Wealdstone], I only ever got a game, not because I was that good and put a senior player out of the team, but because they couldn’t get time off work.

“However you get in the team, once you get in there, you’ve got to make sure you stay in it.

“It’s a game this Club wants to win, of course. You tell me of a football club which goes into a game not wanting to win it, and that is a club where there is something inherently wrong.

“I thought the draw to go to Shrewsbury away was an absolute stinker, bearing in mind I know League One because I worked at Portsmouth leading into working here at West Ham, and I know how strong Shrewsbury and Wigan are.

“The Shrewsbury games turned out exactly how I expected them to be, home and away, and Wigan will be no different. They will be a team looking to take a Premier League scalp and we’re going to have to be fully at it to get a result, there is no doubt about that.

“If we can win, all of a sudden, as you start ticking rounds off in the FA Cup, it can galvanise a football club.

“There might be a dismissive mentality in the early rounds, but as the rounds tick on, you’ve only got to look at the line-ups clubs field in the semi-finals and finals to see how seriously the FA Cup is taken at the business end.”