Sam Allardyce confessed to being 'disappointed' at dropping out of the Carling Cup at the first hurdle in tonight's post-match press conference - but refused to accept that his team would have lost had they kept eleven men on the pitch...
Sam: Upton Park is meant to be a tough place to come to - but not for the home manager. You seem to be struggling to get that first win?Yeah. Well we didn't get our first win today simply because we went down to ten men. It's that simple. You seem to have forgotten that, did you? You know what I mean?
When you go down to ten men it's very difficult to win a game of football - or even when you're one-nil up to hang on to it, even if the opposition are not in the same division as you. It gives them a massive lift at that time. So we're one-nil up, we're nice and comfortable and then unfortunately the young man who's been given his debut, is doing alright, gets caught out and gets sent off.
After that they get the lift, they're going to try and push on and we have to try and defend what we've got because we're one man short and we couldn't hold out in the end. So they got the win. I'm very disappointed of course but I'm not convinced that we'd have lost this game if it'd stayed eleven versus eleven. I think we'd have gone on and won it in the end.
Was the referee wrong to send him [Callum McNaughton] off?
Not really. I don't think so, by the letter of the law if that's the right phrase, or technically. He's seen it as a goalscoring opportunity and he [McNaughton] is the last defender so he has to do what the rules tell him - and that's give him a red card which is obviously a huge disappointment for us, as it is for a young man to be put in that position. But he's got to learn from that of course. He just got caught out around his feet and as a defender instead of just clearing it he tried to bring it down and play out. It didn't work and we got punished for that in the end by him getting sent off.
So, we tried to just hold them out and they got to push the extra man forward. It's always difficult to get out and play out with ten men, you've just got the one man up front. In the end we tried to go for the win by pushing Freddie Sears up top to play with Frank [Nouble] because we needed to go and try to win the game. I didn't want to go into extra time; we played three in midfield, two up top. [We] got a chance maybe to just sneak it when Matt Taylor's header went just wide - but it wasn't to be.
Do you think the West Ham fans were wrong to boo you at the end there?
I don't know, were they booing me?
I think they were booing everything!
[laughs] Well if they're booing because of the way we played that's fine - if it's eleven versus eleven and we lose to Aldershot. But if we lose with ten men, it's not like we got beat by MK Dons four-nil or Rochdale at home two-nil, when it's eleven v eleven. Or Swansea at Shrewsbury, three-one - or Sunderland at Brighton one-nil. So we would have won the game, I think, if we had stayed eleven v eleven - and that's the reality. See I live in reality; most people in football live in perception.
Do you think John Carew needs a few more games before...
There's a lot of our lads who need a few more games. I think it was evident tonight in terms of match fitness. You know, they've come and joined us late; this is one of the products of the transfer window and getting relegated. You have to be patient and wait your time to get the players that you want.
Unfortunately you get them late into pre-season and then when you get them late - it's the same with George McCartney - match fitness is not at the same level as Aldershot's match fitness - and Aldershot's first team is the team that played tonight. So they've played three or four game, trained together all pre-season. Our lads tire when that situation happens, that's why it was such a good game to play them in. But I still think that with eleven v eleven we'd have won tonight.
[Question from Norwegian media] You said he tired when you went down to ten men, but how do you think John Carew played in the first half?
Well I think he's feeling his way in because when you come in late to a pre-season - his is only a couple of weeks [old] - you have some catching up to do. John more importantly than anyone else, because of his big frame; it takes a lot longer to get somebody of his size up to match fitness than the smaller, lighter lads. So we introduced him as a sub on Sunday, he was very, very effective. We played him from the start tonight to get his match fitness up. I would have liked him to do better but now he's got another level of fitness into his games.
We're not quite as big and strong in depth as people think, you know. Lost and lots of players have left the football club and we're not blessed with lots and lots of players in our squad at the moment. So the quicker we get these guys up to match fitness, the better.
You said there were a lot of players knocking on your door saying they wanted to play; did any of them impress you tonight?
I think Junior Stanislas and his goal particularly - and then he nearly had another one. After that we were okay without being brilliant today, but like I said I think we'd got enough to win the game. But it's always the case when you play in a tie like this. When you look at the amount of clubs that have lost in the ties that were supposed to win then you get very disappointed. I would have been bitterly, bitterly disappointed if I'd have lost this game with eleven, but as it was I think we only lost the game because we went down to ten men.
What did you make of Ruud Boffin's performance?
I think it was okay? I mean I'll have to re-look at everything when we see what the situation is tomorrow, I don't think he had too many saves to make. [He] made one good save in the first half, probably because he should have just come out and cleared it or caught it, but stepped back. Made a couple of good saves when we were down to ten men. I'll have to have a look at his positioning and speak to [goalkeeping coach] Martyn [Margetson] regarding [whether he] could have done better with the second goal; I'm not too sure.
[Another question from Norwegian media] Will you be including John Carew at the weekend and will you be recommending him to the national coach? He's going to try and give you a call about it.
That's about the last thing on my mind! [laughs] So I'll wait to get that call and I'll make my mind up then! At the moment John, in fitness terms, is a good sub - as he showed on Sunday, against Leeds United.
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