Avram Grant limps on at West Ham even without support of his board

Votes of confidence from board level are not what they are cracked up to be, but when they come from inside the dressing room an under-pressure manager can take heart. Avram Grant limps on in charge of West Ham United, not because of any strong backing from his employers or the realisation that he might be doing a decent job under difficult circumstances but because neither of his potential replacements, Martin O'Neill or Sam Allardyce, has leapt at the chance to take over. West Ham's players, though, continue to put it in for themselves, the fans, the club and, crucially, for Grant. When they lost 3-1 at home to Manchester City on 11 December, they sat at the foot of the Premier League table with 12 points from 17 games. They were four points off the safety of 17th and, looking further up, eight points off 14th. Since then, however, they have taken eight points from five matches, although the lone blip was an ugly one – the 5-0 defeat at Newcastle United last Wednesday. They have also beaten Barnsley in the FA Cup third round and established a 2-1 first-leg lead in the Carling Cup semi-final against Birmingham City. They remain at the bottom of the pile but they are now only one point from safety and two behind 14th place. Grant has routinely detailed the selection problems he has faced, most recently after the Birmingham game yesterday, when he said that he had "only 16 senior players available". But his argument that the club would not have fashioned such an encouraging run if the players had lost their faith in him bears scrutiny. "We're definitely playing for the manager," said the captain, Scott Parker. "If you believed everything that was written and everything that you hear about West Ham, you would be a rather stressed man. As players, we just keep our heads down and get on with our jobs. "The manager seems very relaxed. I think that's his demeanour. He seems quite relaxed and chilled out and that filters down to the players. The lads are fighting as much as the gaffer is fighting. We're all in the same corner. The manager's got tonnes and tonnes of experience so, yeah, he's doing a good job." The board meeting at Upton Park this afternoon passed off without incident. There is concern among the directors about the prospect of relegation and whether Grant is the manager to lift the team clear of trouble but the co-owner David Sullivan is not about to fire him without an alternative lined up. Stasis endures. Transfers were also on the agenda. Wayne Bridge has signed on loan from Manchester City until May and Queens Park Rangers are considering a loan for the striker Benni McCarthy. The South African is back in shape after his well-documented struggles with his weight, although he is currently out of action with a muscular problem. West Ham would subsidise his wages were he to move to QPR. "Bridge will be fantastic," Parker said. "He's a great player and he will enhance the squad." Grant was forced to start the central defender Matthew Upson at left-back against Birmingham but he will have have Bridge in place for Saturday's visit of Arsenal. Grant is fed up of the uncertainty surrounding his position and he remarked pointedly yesterday night that he was the only manager in the Premier League's bottom seven who was being forced to endure such prolonged speculation. The subtext to his comments seemed to be that the other six managers had publicly supportive directors. His focus, though, is on Arsenal and the tonic that an upset of the north London club could offer. Grant and Parker felt that the team had shown plenty of character to dig out the result against Birmingham, having been reduced to 10 men by Victor Obinna's foolish 59th-minute red card and although Carlton Cole's late winner was hugely fortunate they will take what they can get at present. "In football, sometimes you get a bit of luck and things turn around for you," Parker said. "We're feeling positive. Take the Newcastle game out of it and we've picked up some good results. We'll go into the Arsenal game confident."