West Ham Reaction

Last updated : 07 December 2006 By Paul Farrington

Paul Jewell

"I asked the lads to show some character after a tough weekend and they certainly gave us that.

"I thought it was a tremendous performance from start to finish, they certainly showed character to come to a place like this [Upton Park] especially after being beaten so heavily by Liverpool at the weekend.

"Our squad was stretched, and Matt Jackson suffered from an achilles tendon so we had to make changes, but I thought Cotterill was a threat all night, and it was a cool finish! We started very, very well and maybe we should have scored much earlier, when we had six or seven corners and their 'keeper makes a decent save.

"We looked like the team who were going to score, and apart from one or two efforts from them I thought we were in complete control. They've beaten both Arsenal and Blackburn here, and we've had to roll our sleeves up, silence the crowd and it was an excellent performance."

Alan Pardew

"I'm very disappointed because the performance looked nervous. We looked apprehensive and that's not the sort of team I like to put out. We play good football, we try to move it about and we just looked like we didn't really get a grip on the game today.

"We couldn't accuse the crowd of anything tonight, I thought they were brilliant for us. They were obviously quiet because of the way we were playing; you've got to spark them and we just - as a group tonight - got well beat in lots of areas and that's a worry.

"What we need to do is pick ourselves up very quickly now. Bolton is not far away and if there's ever an example of togetherness, spirit and character it's the way Bolton play.

"There can be no feelgood factor when you lose games. Although we have got a positive in terms of a new owner and maybe an injection of funds when we need it the bottom line is we need to win games.

"Players need to understand that the Premiership status of this club is above and beyond anything else they can think about. This is what they work for, this is who pays their money - and we've got to get this club out of it.

"It is for us all, as a group. It's no good facing it in two months time - 'ah, okay, we're in a bit of trouble here' - we are in trouble. We need to dig deep, show the sort of character we showed in the Championship to turn this situation round quickly.

"When all the expectation was upon us we still managed to get promoted. So we've seen it, we've been there and now we need to find it again quickly.