West Ham manager Sam Allardyce admits job could be on the line against Cardiff City "Financially there is such a gulf between West Ham and a lot of teams in the division, and the spending power they had, even in January," said Malky Mackay, the Cardiff manager. I think there's an expectation level on West Ham, so automatically with that, we would be the underdogs. As a centre-back at West Ham during the 2003-4 season, Mackay also has firsthand experience of the demanding Upton Park crowd. "It's a former club of mine and I know precisely how much pressure they will be under to do well and to impress," he said. That pressure rests largely on the broad shoulders of Allardyce, a manager who is known for his attention to detail and is not immune to using some pre-match psychology of his own. Last week, for example, with West Ham still having the chance to overhaul Southampton in second place, he pointedly noted the "enormous" pressure on his opponents. Yesterday, in an unusual twist, Allardyce opted to put forward his assistant, Neil McDonald, for the pre-match press conference duties. The word at West Ham was that Allardyce wanted to keep things low-key ahead of tonight's first leg at the Cardiff City Stadium. Allardyce, though, has been stressing to his players the importance of not dwelling on their narrow failure to finish in the top two and has told them that all four teams are now "equals" in the battle for promotion. The challenge over the next 18 days will clearly be as much mental as technical. After all, no relegated team have achieved promotion via the play-offs in the following season since Leicester City in 1995. McDonald stressed yesterday that the players, deep down, had expected to be in the play-offs for the last fortnight. "In our heart of hearts we always knew Southampton would win their last game," he said. We were more disappointed when we drew at Bristol City before that in a game we needed to win. We were favourites at the start of the season to go up so it was disappointing we didn't do it automatically. But we'll take the favourite tag if everyone wants to give it to us and we are ready for the two games against Cardiff. West Ham's recent form should also provide hope. They have won a club-record 13 away games this season and, crucially for the mood around Upton Park, go into the play-offs after consecutive home victories. Their three leading goalscorers, Carlton Cole, Kevin Nolan and Ricardo Vaz Tê, are also in good form. "There's no reason why we shouldn't handle the pressure," McDonald said. I don't think we have anything to be afraid of. It will be a unique atmosphere but our experienced players will calm everyone down. Hopefully our away form will intimidate Cardiff. The momentum is there.