West Ham Reaction: Embarrassing

Here are the view's of the two manager's.

Paul Jewell

Paul Jewell: Same old excuses

"They were the better team, they were sharper, quicker to the ball and they were better all round than us. We have not learned from our lessons against Spurs when we had a free-kick or a corner and they scored from both of them, and it happened again today. It is disappointing.

"The first goal was always going to be decisive in a game like this, and so it proved to be. We never really looked like we were going to get back into the game. West Ham hit us on the break and they full deserved the win.

"We are struggling at the moment and we are quickly running out of games, and the amazing thing is that it is still in our hands and it's all to play for. But I am bitterly disappointed. I don't know whether it was because it was just the occassion, or a loss of form in some of the players, or a combination of both.

"Even in the first few minutes there was hesitancy in our back four, and we never really got over that. It was a high tension game and a lot at stake and they settled down a lot better than us once they scored.""We have never been so easy to play against, but we have to get back on Monday morning and improve dramatically in the next game against Middlesbrough.

"I do not want anyone to get relegated because of irregularities or administration because that is a terrible way to go. But I do wonder that if I played Antonio Valencia today, who was suspended, what would have happened?

"I might have played him if we could have got away with half-a-million pound fine, because this game is worth more than £5.5million. I understand it was the previous regime at West Ham were responsible for bringing Tevez in, but the current regime still continued to play him regardless."

Alan Curbishley

"It was so vital to score the first goal today and once we got it we looked strong. After yesterday's events, there was so much negative publicity in the newspapers that we wanted to grab a chance to get some positive stuff in tomorrow's press and, hopefully, we've now done that.

"I've been saying that it isn't over ever since the Tottenham game but we've needed to win the majority of our games. We've shown a lot of ability recently and now it's important that we continue to do ourselves justice in our final two matches.

"We're still relying on other things and I still think that we need 38 points to give ourselves a chance but there's no reason why we can't use our current momentum to get even more between now and the end of the season."