HE JEERS turned to cheers at the weekend for Glenn Roeder and his West Ham side as they finally got back on the winning trail against Southampton.

s=9Although it was never a classic, his team showed that when it came to the crunch, they were up for it something many people had been questioning in recent weeks, writes Gary Firmager.o

Speaking to the Guardian exclusively after the game on Saturday, boss Roeder had this to say: "I said to them (the players) today, this is about giving something back to the football club and ourselves. Everyone needed that result, the whole club the tea lady, everybody.

"We will enjoy Sunday night, but then it's nose back to the grindstone on Monday morning. We'll work hard on Monday and Tuesday and hopefully on Wednesday we will get the result that we want against Chelsea."

Roeder added: "It's damn mystifying how we've let in so many goals in these last couple of games. I may not have been happy with our defending so far this year, but I haven't been disappointed with the three home clean sheets and it was terrific for Freddy Kanoute to get two headed goals."

It hasn't gone unnoticed that the Hammers have played such an unequal number of home and away games and if they managed to take all three points last night at home to Chelsea, then their League position would also have improved significantly.

This was not lost on recent signing Don Hutchison. Don said: "In any home game we fancy ourselves to win. And if we do manage to pull the three points in against Chelsea, then we could easily get ourselves back up to tenth or 11th.

"With the game in hand," he added, "it's up to us to make sure we get what we need to get us back up the table. Two or three wins back-to-back really does make a difference in the league table. We've got the first one under our belts now so we can look forward to two more home games out of three."

What delighted the home fans also delighted Hutchison, and he continued: "The pleasing thing for me was that we had 11 players out there today who were grafting.

"Away from home we have had a few players go missing so it was nice for everyone to work really hard today."

Meanwhile, England international Trevor Sinclair, the subject of a new improved £7m bid from Sunderland this week, told me on Saturday: "I can't really comment on whether I would go there (Sunderland) or not. If the club agrees a figure then I would have to think about it.

"Obviously you can't really know about anywhere until you have been to a club, have seen what strength and depth they have got in the squad and have seen what kind of ambitions the club have got.

"So it's unfair to say that I would or I wouldn't go to Sunderland or whoever, because I have not seen the set-up and I don't know what it is all about."

However, Sinclair hinted that he could still have a change of heart: "If I started to believe that the club wanted to go to the places that I thought they wanted to go to when I first got here, then that could easily change my mind."

For West Ham to prove things to their fans as well as Trevor, then they have to make sure they come away from Ipswich Town this Sunday with at least something.

A repeat performance of their last two away defeats will probably see Sinclair push even harder for a move and Hammers fans backing Sinclair's claims that the club need to start showing a lot more ambition.