West Ham overpriced for FA Cup trip to Nottingham Forest

Only five teams separate Nottingham Forest and West Ham in the football pyramid but West Ham are embracing the cup competitions and are worth backing at 5/2.

The Hammers beat Tottenham at White Hart Lane to set up a semi-final berth in the Capital One Cup and, with a similar team likely to travel to Nottingham, shouldn’t be under-dogs.

Manager Sam Allardyce explained: “We will put a few of the young lads out there telling them, show us what you can do. Show you are good enough to play for West Ham.

“We had a few digs about that when we played Tottenham in the Capital One Cup, and we won, so my job is to put the best team available out there.”

Bet on West Ham to win at 5/2

The Londoners have won two of their last three visits to the City Ground and they can blunt their in-form hosts.

Forest are unbeaten in their last seven games but they have only scored eight goals in that period, suggesting that Billy Davies’ 4-5-1 formation is not helping forward Jamie Mackie.

The 28-year-old has only scored twice this season, and is goalless in his last nine.

Bet on over 2.5 goals at 19/20

However one feature of games between these two sides has been lots of goals; the last five clashes have featured three or more goals, whilst three of those games saw the goalkeepers beaten on five occasions.

Over 2.5 goals is 19/20, and whilst West Ham haven’t been prolific in-front of goal this season, the bet would have landed in five out of their last six away matches.

Allardyce expects Ravel Morrison to be fit and the former Manchester United starlet is 11/4 to score at any time.

The attack-minded midfielder has five goals to his name this season, almost as many as the number of yellow cards he has picked up (six).

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