BEATING Manchester City is the immediate objective but Sam Allardyce's thoughts continue to be dominated by one team - West Ham United.

Wanderers' destiny is now inextricably linked with the Hammers and the Reebok boss acknowledged the fact when he stressed the importance of the next two games - Saturday's high noon derby duel with Kevin Keegan's Blues and next Saturday's trip to Chelsea.

"We must try to get something out of both games so that when the West Ham game comes round (Saturday, April 19) it is not the be-all and end-all," he explained.

"We don't want to put ourselves in that 'must-win' situation."

Allardyce is doing his best to keep the pressure off his players who, on the strength of winning three and drawing two of their last six games, have given themselves a fighting chance of confounding the bookies and beating the drop.

"We only have ourselves to blame for still being in a very delicate situation," he accepted as he surveyed the two-point advantage Wanderers currently hold over Glenn Roeder's Londoners, "but we are in good form and hopefully we can continue to get the points as early as we possibly can to take the pressure off.

"Anything can happen when you put yourself under pressure."

Despite being upbeat after the successive victories over Sunderland and Spurs and voicing his optimism that Birmingham and Leeds are now within striking distance, Allardyce is understandably cautious.

He is worried the players who have been away on international duty - Gudni Bergsson, Jussi Jaaskelainen, Per Frandsen, Jay-Jay Okocha, Bernard Mendy and Kevin Nolan - may have "switched off" and fears City will be desperately determined to make up for the 5-0 beating they took at Chelsea last time out.

"We've got the big problem of them coming here off the back ofahammeringandthe

humiliation that comes from that," he warned.

"But we saw the made some basic defensive errors at Chelsea and if they make them again, we'll be looking to cash in."

Ricardo Gardner and Simon Charlton have recovered from hamstring and knee problems giving Allardyce a near full-strength squad at his disposal.

Allardyce is hoping for a repeat of the vocal backing that was so uplifting during the Spurs game 11 days ago. "Our players have played their best football this year when those full houses have been singing away," he said.

"We will need the crowd again because they certainly made a difference in the second half against Tottenham and the players responded to that.

"It will be great if it is a full house this time around, but we have got to make sure it is a full house when we come round to playing West Ham."