SUN
GLENN ROEDER watched his hapless Hammers crash to the biggest FA Cup defeat in their history - and then vowed never to quit.
Roeder was consoled for an hour after the drubbing by Manchester United chief Alex Ferguson.
But despite his side's humiliation, the West Ham boss remained defiant. Roeder said: "Alex has been giving me a lot of encouragement and I am a good listener. He has basically told me to hang in there.
"The first 15 minutes of the second half were abysmal.
"At times it was excruciating and we had players who didn't fight as much as we'd expect. But I will carry on. Each defeat does not help my position but I have never been a person who would give in to anything. That's the way I am and will always be. On the way home I will already be thinking of what the team will be against Blackburn on Wednesday. Effort, work-rate, drive, desire and will to win are the easy things to bring to the party."
"You all write about Manchester United and their wonderful skill, technique and quality. But they also always bring those other things as well. That's what winners like United do. I'm afraid I'd be the first to hold my hand up and say there were a number of my players here you could point the finger at."
‘If Glenn Roeder thought West Ham's season could not possibly get any worse he was proved horribly wrong as his side were flattened 6-0 by a Manchester United steamroller in their FA Cup fourth-round tie at Old Trafford.
On any other day, Ryan Giggs' first-half double would have provided a major talking point as the Welshman delivered a decisive answer to the critics who have questioned his value to the Red Devils.
Yet his contribution was reduced to a mere sideshow as the Hammers subsided to a defeat of such magnitude it must surely place a massive question mark over Roeder's position.
The besieged Upton Park chief watched the opposition rampage through his side with such ease it appeared at times there was only one team on the pitch.’
MEN
Trust the MEN to come up with the quad twaddle:
‘MANCHESTER United were effectively handed a bye into the fifth round of the FA Cup by a woeful West Ham. The Reds made it into the next round with ease and their quadruple quest never looked in doubt at Old Trafford against the Premiership strugglers.’