We must win for Kieron and the others (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

We must win for Kieron and the others

10:24am Thursday 30th August 2007 in West Ham By Guardian-series

IT'S never good see a teammate injured, so we all felt terrible when Kieron Dyer broke his leg at Bristol Rovers on Tuesday.

A few boys said they heard his leg crack when it happened - it isn't nice.

The player that made the tackle was nowhere near the ball. Kieron was on his way past him and the guy looked defeated and I think he just lashed out. It's really hard to take.

I've known Kieron for a long while, since when I used to go and watch him play football with my brother when I was younger and, with all the bad luck he's had with injuries, you really feel for him.

He hasn't had many days training with us since he came, because he's been away with England, but his presence has been good and his banter's really good.

That's going to be sorely missed and hopefully he can recover quickly.

It's almost like a curse at the moment. All the new players that we have signed are injured except for Craig Bellamy - touch wood.

You look at it and wonder how can that happen? But it is luck of the draw and we have to get on with it. The players that are fit have to go and do a job.

At least we got the win and we're through to the next round. The Carling Cup is a competition that I think we can do well in and it's always good to win. Winning breeds confidence. We played very well on Tuesday and we're feeling confident.

We're looking forward to going to Reading on Saturday. Of course last year's 6-0 defeat is at the back of our minds. But that's a good thing, we won't let that happen again.

The feeling I had after that game was one of the worst I've ever had. I never want to feel like that again, so we have to make sure that we go there and attack the game.

We don't want to leave the Madejski like that two years in a row. We want to come away with the three points. Of course, it'll be a tough game. They've got good strikers and Leroy Lita is a good friend of mind, so I'm looking forward to taking him on.

And, if anything, the injuries are added motivation. We have to go out and put some points on the board for the sidelined players, so when they come back they will want to fight for their place and when they get in the team, it's a winning team. It's all about confidence.