West Ham United goalkeeper Darren Randolph has stated that he is prepared for the duel with veteran striker Jermain Defoe, ahead of Saturday's trip to the North East to take on Sunderland AFC.

Limit his space and chances

Slaven Bilić's men will travel to the Stadium of Light on Saturday to take on side that have performed even worse than themselves in the current campaign, with the Black Cats sitting dead bottom of the Premier League with 10 points separating them from top-flight safety.

The only person that has given them a glimmer of hope has been former Hammer Defoe, whose had another great season on Wearside with 14 goals which saw him make a return to the England side during the most recent international break.

Bilić's men will be full confidence having ended their seven-game streak without a victory last weekend with the win over Swansea City, and also taking on a side that have failed to score in their last seven matches but Randolph stated that they will need to be wary of the danger that Defoe brings.

“He’s a dangerous and clinical finisher," Randolph stressed to whufc.com. "As he’s proved throughout his whole career.”

“Any half-chance he will take it," the goalkeeper admitted to the club's website. "So that’s obviously what Sunderland look for."

Randolph added: “We obviously need to limit his space and chances.”

Going to be there

The Hammers head up North however with some significant absentees to their squad, with Bilić confirming that top scorer Michail Antonio will be out for the rest of the season with a hamstring injury.

Another will be skipper Mark Noble who capped off his 400th game for the club last Saturday with his tenth yellow card of the season, this will mean Noble will be suspended for two matches but he confirmed that he will travel to Wearside with the team.

"I'll be going up with them, for sure," he confirmed. "I'm pretty sure the manager will be happy with me travelling up with the lads and supporting them."

"We'll take a lot of fans to what is another important game for us," Noble concluded. "I believe we can go there after Saturday and get a result."

VAVEL Logo
About the author
Danial  Kennedy
Award-winning sports journalism graduate. Currently studying a PR Masters at the University of Sunderland. Writing for VAVEL since August 2014. Twitter - @ddkjournalism.