Mark Hughes shares his thoughts following Fulham's 1-1 draw with Avram Grant's side at the Boleyn Ground...
Do you think you should have won that with all the chances?Yeah, I think in general play and on chances that we created I felt that we could have taken the three points. Certainly in the first half; I thought we had the vast majority of possession and control of the game. We scored the opening goal and were quite comfortable.
Obviously we didn't get the award of the penalty because at 2-0, going into the half time break I think it would have been very difficult for West Ham to come back at us. But in fairness, the first 10/15 minutes of the second half they came out and had a go and maybe we were guilty of over-playing in key areas and as a consequence we lost the equaliser.
That was a disappointment on the day but overall we've created a number of clear-cut chances which, on another day, could have been converted and we would have won the game. I'm pleased with the level of performance but possibly not the result today.
You feel it was a penalty?
Eddie's got in behind the defence and normally defenders have to be vary careful in those sort of situations - if there's any contact whatsoever and a player goes down more ofthen than not it's a penalty. Unfortunately for us, for whatever reason, it wasn't given.
From my point of view it was a clear coming-together, there were tangled legs and a goalscoring opportunity was denied so on that basis it should have been a penalty.
Dempsey took a bit of a knock?
Yeah, he got a nasty crack - I've not talked to him about it but he wasn't too happy at the time. Whether or not it was accidental or there was a little bit of intent I'm not sure becasue I haven't seen the challenge again but he's got a big egg on the side of his face so he's a little bit sore at the moment.
But in fairness, credit to him - a bang like that could have knocked him out of the game but he wasn't prepared to come out of the game, he knew he had a key role for us today. He was senior partner up there, he wanted to do his part for the team effort and I was pleased with what he produced today.
You've had so many draws now, is that starting to become a monkey on your back?
Not really. In some games we haven't deserved draws and in others - like today's - I think we deserved wins. But it's where was are at the moment; obviously we're unbeaten, we've had four or five games away from home and they've been really difficult places to go. West Ham are on a little bit of a run of form themselves and we've come here and taken the game to them.
It's not as if I'm setting out my team to drag out draws, we were really positive and we're trying to win every game that we can at the moment. In the past we would have been beaten in similar games in similar situations so we'll take the positives out of it which is that we're unbeaten and picking points up on the road which is important this year if we're going to have a good season.
Given how we play and approach the game it's only a matter of time before we start putting three points on the board on a regular basis, I feel sure of that.
You're being very modest about it; two of your best attackers weren't able to play?
All the guys have had to stand up and be counted and play a part. Eddie Johnson came in today, his first start for me and I thought he had a positive effect on the game, had a threat in behind. At times we're guilty of playing in front of teams but he gave a threat in behind so I was pleased for him becasue he's had to be patient.
But certainly we've missed a little bit of attacking play. Bobby [Zamora] missing for five months is key for us but we've got Moussa Dembele, hopefully after the international break, coming back; Andy Johnson needs a little bit more time but he's not far off and Jo Kamara is near the first team again after a long time out.
So we have got options but obviously you want your key players to be available every week - but at the moment, we haven't got those guys.
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