Grant not out for revenge

Revenge for his side’s Carling Cup semi-final exit is not on Avram Grant’s mind ahead of Birmingham’s visit to Upton Park on Sunday.

The east London team could claw their way out of the relegation places with a win on Sunday.

West Ham were denied an obvious penalty in the dying minutes of November’s English Premier League meeting at St Andrews, which ended 2-2.

Then, in January, the Midlands club dumped West Ham out of the League Cup over their two-legged semi-final.

But Grant said: “I don’t believe in revenge. They won in the League Cup and we wish them all the success in the final. Our target is to not be in the relegation zone and this is a good opportunity for us.”

The West Ham manager also spoke highly of his January signings and that the recent good form of on-loan Inter Milan forward Victor Obinna was no shock.

“I’m not surprised,” Grant said. “He has a lot of quality.”

“It’s not easy to come into English football and have an impact immediately. But he did well for us, especially in the last two games. He is improving, his decisions are better and I think he’ll get used to English football very quickly.”

“Over the last few weeks what we have done has been good for us, taking points off teams around us, and we need to continue this.”

There are no new injury concerns for Grant ahead of the clash and the manager is set to start with the same team that won 3-1 against Blackpool on Tuesday – including new loan signing Robbie Keane, who marked his debut with a goal.

“Robbie Keane is a very good player, he has a good character also,” Grant added. “We are playing a style that is good for him, so he is the player we want to have at the moment. ”

“We saw him in training, we saw him in the game against Blackpool and we saw a player that looked like he had been part of the team for a while. I’m sure he will do what we need him to do.”