Sunday 19 October 2014 09:01, UK
Sam Allardyce called on his West Ham players to secure a win at Burnley so that he could celebrate his 60th birthday on Sunday in style.
Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia headed goals in the opening 10 minutes of the second half and, although George Boyd pulled one back, substitute Carlton Cole sealed a 3-1 victory for the Hammers.
The win helped the Londoners temporarily climb into fourth spot in the Premier League table which put a spring in the step of Allardyce, who will be staying in the north west to mark the special occasion.
Allardyce said: "I said to the players before the game, 'Come on lads I need a result, because it is my birthday, and if I can't get a result it's not going to be very pleasing for me, no matter that I'm with my old mates'.
"I think a change of system was the key element for us winning the game, which then brought better outstanding quality from us in wide areas.
If we get into December and we're still getting results and maintaining a top-half position, then we can start thinking about maybe maintaining that for the rest of the season.
"Our two centre-forwards that we bought paid massive dividends with the quality of the headers off brilliant crosses, and that really in the end put Burnley to bed after they had a very lively first half.
"Then Carlton comes on and scores a third when we've gifted them a goal to get back into it, which just summed up our performance today. It's our first back-to-back victories and it's fantastic that we're now on 13 points.''
Valencia and Sakho were both summer signings, and the latter, who joined from French side Metz, has now scored in six successive games.
Allardyce said: "He is a bargain. This lad has been very exciting, and he's excited the rest of the players.
"I think all our players that were here last season, having had some of the depressing times that they didn't expect, have all been lifted by the new players and their performances have increased as well as the news lads hitting the ground running.
"We just hope it continues. It's too early to say what we're going to be or what we're going to do but things are looking very good.
"If we get into December and we're still getting results and maintaining a top-half position, then we can start thinking about maybe maintaining that for the rest of the season.''
