Hammers boss Alan Pardew has hailed West Ham's narrow 1-0 win over Cardiff at Upton Park today a 'deserved' victory.
Pardew, speaking after the game revealed that he was thoroughly delighted with his team's performance, which earned all three points courtesy of to a second-half strike from Bobby Zamora.And, according to Pardew, the victory was even sweeter as he felt that his side had no lucky breaks throughout the entire 90 minutes.
"That's a team coming off of a 4-0 win against Sunderland - and without much luck falling for us today we thought it was a really good result," he said.
"It was a really tough game for us. They're a team in-form, you could see that from the start. They moved the ball around well and were comfortable.
"They've come here, and they've got some great players and they've got a great chance themselves, they know that. This is a tough place to come to and they acquitted themselves well.
"But we really got about them - I think we unsettled them and deserved to win. I thought we stayed strong throughout.
"I think we played really well. Michael Carrick, I thought was terrific in midfield. We had a nice balance to the side and the subs who came on all did well. We go on healthily into our next game - which is important.
"Sometimes you're looking for a little thing to fall for you or a wee bit of luck to go your way. We didn't really have any luck today which makes the result even more encouraging, to be fair."
And answering those critics who questioned his decision to replace his two strikers late on with midfielders in an attempt to close down the game, Pardew said:
"I said to the guys - and it is a bit of a cliche but - a 1-0 victory at home, that's what you want; it speaks volumes for you.
"We're not used to closing games out here - we haven't had a great deal of practice at it! Yes, I felt we were a bit negative towards the end in that last 10/15 minutes, we could have gone on and been a bit more positive and perhaps got a second goal.
"But mentally we changed to seal the game up. In Italy, if you don't change your tactics and see the game out you'll be chastised in the press. We didn't really want to be seeing the game out in that manner but by the same token we did see it out - which was encouraging."
Speaking on the incident which led to Cardiff defender Gabbidon receiving a yellow card - when many felt it should have been a red one instead for pulling down Bobby Zamora on the edge of the box - Pardew added:
"I honestly felt that their centre-half was lucky to stay on the pitch - we were a bit frustrated by that which I think was shown a bit by Tomas at half-time.
"But at the time, Gabbidon goes off at that stage; that was the rule and I didn't see the referee's argument that a fellow defender was going to get across - but I accepted it, and that was it really."
But in the spirit of fairness, the Hammers boss added that he felt Hammers defender Tomas Repka was slightly fortunate not to have been given his marching orders for his altercation with the referee, right after he was reprimanded for allegedly taking a free kick from the wrong position - a charge which Pardew felt was harsh.
"Tomas was lucky, to be fair; we went to see the referee after to apologise for that little incident.
"I think he leant forward, it was a strange gesture. I think there was perhaps a little bit of last week in that, we had a guy sent off last week over a similar thing and he felt it was right but - there's no excuse for reacting like he did, Tomas, to the referee wanting him to move it.
"I went to see the ref at half-time to talk about the two incidents. I promised him at half-time that I would bring Tomas in and apologise. Because he has a tendency to lose his head - and he did at that time.
"The ref had a go at me actually! He was still hyped up over the incident with Tomas - I was disappointed about that but we had to get the first one out of the way before I could get to the second one - so I suppose that evened it out."
Pardew also has a word of praise for goalscorer Zamora - whose goal was his first at Upton Park - although even he didn't escape without some criticism!
"I was disappointed in Bobby in the first half - and I think he was too," said Pardew. "His hold-up play wasn't as good as it could have been, but the second half he was better, he created a couple of great chances against a top defender in Gabbidon.
"I was pleased that for the clear chance he had he kept his head, and dispatched it because a lot of players would have - with the chances we'd missed - rushed it. I was pleased for him."
So the Hammers roadshow moves on - to Turf Moor in Burnley, next Tuesday evening. A game which the Hammers will go into with renewed confidence following the setback against Fulham last week.
"With the results that have gone today, we always knew it was going to be important to win. The fans were really with us and that helps us. It's been a good day for us today, obviously," mused Pardew.
"We were trying to get a positive message from the bench out there to keep going - and they did. Without much luck falling our way we feel it was a great result, we're pleased with that and we go to Burnley on Tuesday."
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