19.45GMT/20.45CET Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham United [Capital One Cup Q/F]

Interim manager Tim Sherwood will take charge of his first game in the White Hart Lane hotseat tomorrow as Spurs face West Ham in the quarter final of the Capital One Cup.

Boss Andre Villas-Boas was sacked on Monday following a string of bad results which included the 5-0 loss to Liverpool, 6-0 to Manchester City, 1-0 to Newcastle and 3-0 to tomorrow’s opponents back in October.

That was the last time the Hammers came to the Lane, and left as resounding winners as AVB’s Spurs crumbled thanks to goals from Winston Reid, Ricardo Vaz Te and Ravel Morrison.

However West Ham have won just once in the League since then, a 3-0 win against Fulham, a run which has seen them lose 5 and draw 3 to leave them just a single point ahead of Crystal Palace and the relegation zone.

In the League Cup, they have overcome Cheltenham, Cardiff and finally Burnley to get to the Quarters, scoring 7 and conceding 3 along the way.

Spurs come off the back of the 5-0 defeat to Liverpool with the pressure on Sherwood to prove he deserves a permanent shot at the job. In the same competition Spurs have beaten two Premier League opponents, Aston Villa and Hull City, both with differing levels of ease.

Away in the Midlands proved to be a simple task as we cantered to a 4-0 victory, however this was mirrored by the hard-fought 8-7 penalty shoot-out victory after a 2-2 draw with Hull.

Team News

Sherwood, flanked by coaches Ferdinand, Freund and Ramsey, will be without the defensive mainstay of Sandro at the Lane tomorrow after the Beast picked up a calf injury in the first half against Liverpool.
He was forced off and disappeared down the tunnel to be replaced by Lewis Holtby, and is likely to be replaced by either Etienne Capoue or Mousa Dembele in holding midfield.

Michael Dawson will serve a suspension after picking up his 5th yellow card at the weekend, as will Paulinho who received a straight red card for a high challenge on Luis Suarez. He will miss this game, the trip to Southampton and the visit of West Brom.

In better news, fullback Danny Rose could be in line for a return after he faced Anzhi last week. Rose missed a huge run of games with a foot injury but completed 45minutes in our 4-1 win against the Russians, only to be left out this weekend.

Similarly, centre-half Vlad Chiriches could be thrown back in after a knee injury meant defensive midfielder Capoue was forced to fill in in recent weeks, and our interim boss has had his own say on the defensive frailty of the Lilywhites:

"In defensive areas we're quite light, but it's up to those boys to step up to the mark and perform well for the club and for themselves," Tim said. "We'll just crack on with what else we've got. It ain't a bad team."

His links to the youth development at Spurs mean that Sherwood could call up a few youngsters for the clash too.

Focused

Sherwood has mentioned the need for a positive result tomorrow night after the turbulent week in N17. After taking charge of his first training session, Tim called on the players to forget the memory of past results and focus on the coming set of fixtures:

"When you lose your manager it's a change and you've got to listen to a different voice, but I'm hoping to get a few messages across in a short space of time so we can get a positive result against West Ham," the 44-year-old told Spurs TV.

"It's a huge game, especially on the back of what they did to us at the Lane. It was disappointing.

"We have to get out there on the front foot and we have to impose ourselves on them as soon as we can during the game."

And there is no doubting that he is wary of the side who humiliated us in our own back yard not long ago:

"Hopefully they've got their concentration on Premier League safety rather than the cup tomorrow night," he added ahead of the derby.

"We have to be patient. They got bodies behind the ball and tried to catch us on the counter-attack.

"We're aware of that. Let's just hope we can impose ourselves on them nice and early, get the crowd behind us and really be up and at them."