A defeated - yet far from demoralised - Tony Pulis looks back at his team's 3-0 defeat at the Boleyn Ground this afternoon...
Tony: were you disappointed that your team seemed to cave in so easily today?I was disappointed with the [first] two goals we conceded. I thought up until the two goals - especially the first one - we were well in the game and if anything had more control of the game. Then we gave a silly goal away and they scored again from a set-play which is disappointing from our point of view.
From then on they deserved to win it. Second half, for all our possession and having a go - and we did have more of a go second half, for 30 minutes - they break and score. West Ham's day; fair play and good luck to them.
It seems a certain irony that Demba Ba got the first goal for them?
No, no; that's the way football is and that's the way it works. We did what we had to do in good faith and you can never criticise people for doing what they have to do in good faith. The medical side said what they had to say and you get on with it.
There's no-one who's done it out of any animosity or badness, or anything like that - it was just the view that the football club took and you get on with it.
A bit of a worrying away run now?
Even today I don't think we've played. We've been to places and played very well - we played very well at Arsenal, we played well at Birmingham and come away with nothing. Like I say, in patches today. For the first 20 minutes, up until the first goal I thought we were well in the game today.
What do you think your lack of goals is down to? Is it a lack of confidence, or something else?
We need one to go in off someone's backside as mcuh as anything else. Even second half, Ricardo [Fuller's] effort looks as if it's a goal and it goes wide; Kenwyn [Jones] has had a great header and it's just gone wide. We've had opportunities and chances today that have not dropped for us.
You know, we've played games and played teams who have two chances in a game and score. Sometimes we have eight, nine chances and don't so you need that bit of luck. But we'll be alright, we'll keep working at it. It's a tough old league, this one. We know what it's all about.
Are you concerned about the relegation situation?
I think everybody is. My argument is we have to get to 40 points as quick as we can and then look at the table from there. That's always been my view.
I think if you look around, if you're always looking over your shoulder or looking to see what other teams are doing you take your eye off the ball in respect of what you've got to achieve - and the focus at our football club has always been what we achieve, what we can do. And that will always be the case, let everybody else worry about what everyone else is doing.
The most important thing is affecting what you can affect - and we can only affect what Stoke City do.
West Ham were the better side overall but they seemed to get the benefit of a lot of decisions, just little 50/50s whether it was throw-ins, or free-kicks or whatever?
And good luck to them. Fine, it happens!
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