West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce felt his team played very well as they held Premier League champs Manchester City to 0 – 0 draw at upton park.
Kevin Nolan had a goal ruled offside and Yossi Benayoun smashed the woodwork while Manchester City striker Balotelli let the Hammers off the hook when he wasted a chance at point blank range. The draw was the first time in months that Mancini’s men have failed to register a goal and Allardyce was more than delighted at the chance to play online poker today.
“I’m really pleased,” he said. “I think that our performance today was very very good.
“The way we started the game was bright, trying to see if we could test Man City early on. “Of course, we did that with a fantastically-taken goal by Kevin Nolan that I think was a little unfortunate to be given offside. “But the first half, we tried the best we possibly could to put more and more pressure on Man City. “Of course we would have to do some severe defending somewhere along the line and that wasn’t so much in the first half but certainly was in the second.”
Despite being pressed back into their own penalty area for long periods in the second half Sam was happy with the commitment shown by his players to pick up a point.
He said: “In fairness to the lads, they kept on going and going. “We had the odd breakout in the second half which caused them the odd problem or two and certainly Andy’s [Carroll] overhead kick would’ve been a fabulous goal.
“It was goal bound. I don’t know whether Harty [Joe Hart] would’ve saved it but it hit somebody else [Gael Clichy] in the back. “But we have to be satisfied that we’ve taken a point off the champions and it really is a good day for us.” Allardyce also believes the display will give his players added confidence as they continue a tough run of fixtures leading up to Christmas.
Following their point against the champions the West ham face Manchester United, Newcastle, Tottenham and Arsenal before the year is out He said: “It gives us a lot of hope and I think a lot of confidence because it’s a bit of icing on top of the cake for us today. “We were disappointed we didn’t get anything at Wigan and we’ve now got this huge, difficult fixture list that’s coming up, Man City being the first.
“But this one is icing on top of the cake for us because it’s a really tough group of fixtures and we’ve started by playing the champions of the Premier League and getting a point, so that gives us great confidence going on into this group of fixtures.”
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