Although the General Election on Thursday will surely be uppermost in most people’s minds, West Ham United fans will be contemplating a week in which, after seeing their team secure a 1-0 win against the claret and blue of Burnley, they will be travelling to Birmingham to watch similarly attired and relegation-threatened Aston Villa.

It’s a good job the ‘Iron’ of Claret and Blue striped Scunthorpe still play in League One as this could confuse a stupid person.

The shot count against the Clarets on Saturday might have suggested a game of one-way traffic but that was never the case.

Burnley provided stiff opposition for the Hammers but the visitors endured the type of afternoon which usually defines relegation strugglers.

Up front, Sean Dyche’s men just created half-chances while, at the back, Cheikhou Kouyate’s sublime bit of skill is the type of thing you only really get at the top level. It forced defender Michael Duff into giving away a penalty Mark Noble dispatched gleefully. The foul on Kouyate was cast-iron but the sending off of the unfortunate Duff was a poor decision that set the tone of the game after.

Once again though, the Hammers don’t seem able to convert chances into goals and, whoever is in charge next campaign, this needs to be addressed as it has hampered the club for far too many seasons.

Of course, you can point to the treatment room and the familiar figure of Andy Carroll, now joined by Diafra Sakho, but the Boleyn injury hoodoo has been an accepted fact of life since John Lyall once wore the tracksuit.

Keeping a surfeit of international class strikers happy without regular European football is a difficult ask for West Ham, so it is about time the club took a chance on one – perhaps two – Championship level strikers.

Current thinking now has it that the reach from one division to another is almost unsurmountable and is managed only by the very best, but I believe this is wrong.

The step-up has worked well-enough for Aaron Cresswell and the former Ipswich Town defender’s progress just shows that dipping into a lower league is a trick the Hammers have ignored for too long.

A striker banging in 20 plus goals at Championship level for a few seasons is surely worth a punt in the Premier League, where even from the bench a handful of goals can make all the difference to a campaign.

The win against Burnley moves the Hammers temptingly towards the 50 point mark and Sam Allardyce will be keen to meet the half-century as it will undoubtedly help in his season-end negotiations with the owners.

One highly-respected sports web site, talking about Sam’s attempt to keep his struggling team in the top half, sarcastically put the word progress in inverted commas this week when describing the manager’s efforts in 2014/15.

But, like it or lump it, Allardyce has increased the points tally each season he has been in charge and if the team finish in the top ten, the manager can point to his record and fairly state he has done exactly what was required.

Football is now big business as well as a sport and Davids Gold and Sullivan are successful entrepreneurs themselves.

As fans they will be aware of many supporters’ antipathy towards the manager but, in business terms, you can’t help but wonder if they won’t see Sam’s continued involvement as an important piece in the attempt to move the club to the next level.

Having successfully negotiated initial hostility towards the sale of the Boleyn – you rarely hear fans complaining about moving to Stratford now – the board may well be looking at things slightly differently.

It’s hard to second-guess what is really happening with the rumour mill in full swing but I’m not sure things are as done and dusted as some might think (or hope!).