Premier League: Sam Allardyce praises West Ham after spirited second half against Hull City at Upton Park
Monday 19 January 2015 09:55, UK
West Ham boss Sam Allardyce praised his side's ruthless second-half display against Hull - but admitted he was forced to go direct to a seal a 3-0 win.
Hull were the livelier side in the first half at Upton Park on Super Sunday, but the hosts made the breakthrough four minutes after the restart and further goals from Morgan Amalfitano and Stewart Downing sealed an ultimately comfortable victory.
Admitting he had changed his approach, Allardyce said: "I thought we were lucky to go in 0-0 at half-time on the basis of the chances that Hull City made today. But I had to make sure we changed the system at the break so we went back to the diamond shape. And we blocked the midfield up so we could get through it better.
"All this tippy-tappy stuff - everybody keeps on going about the right way to play football - well, getting the ball into the opposition box as quickly as you can with quality is definitely sometimes the best way forward.
"That's what we did in the second half and that's why we won the game."
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The Hammers had not won in four league games but these three points take them back up to seventh place - just outside the European qualification spots.
"With Carroll, Downing and Enner Valencia up front we started to break them down and obviously the goal was very important to us," Allardyce added.
"The amount of effort these lads put in on Tuesday night [against Everton in the FA Cup) meant we couldn’t get close to Hull at the start, but in the second half we took control of the game.
"We scored some excellent goals, got the clean sheets I’ve been looking for a period of time and the substitutes were great when they came on.
"Our performance has merited the result in the end. The quality of our finishing today is more than what we’re used to. Clean sheets are a fantastic habit of going right to the end of the game. Hopefully we can get into that habit a little bit more."
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