Allardyce wanted all three points

20 November 2012 06:35

Sam Allardyce says West Ham United deserved to win following their 1-1 draw at home to Stoke City on Monday.

Visitors Stoke led through Jon Walters' goal in the first half at Upton Park, as the away team dominated the opening 45 minutes.

The second half belonged to West Ham, with Joey O'Brien netting the equaliser just three minutes after the restart.

And West Ham manager Allardyce felt his players would have been worthy winners if they had found the decisive breakthrough.

"I thought we deserved three (points) in the end, over the 90 minutes," Allardyce said.

"I thought Stoke were better than us in the first half.

"We had to recover from an extremely good goal from Jon Walters. It was well-worked and an extremely good finish. Having to come from 1-0 down in any Premier League game is difficult.

"The way we said to the full-backs at half-time, 'let's get forward more', was key. Kevin Nolan had a great chance from George McCartney and that set the stall out for us. Then we scored from another chance.

"There were several other chances that we had. We needed to finish them off because we created enough chances to win it, but we move on with another point on the board reasonably happy."

Stoke manager Tony Pulis acknowledged the teams' contrasting fortunes in either half in east London, and was ultimately satisfied to go home with a share of the spoils.

"It was chalk and cheese," he said.

"Two halves, one for us and one for them, so I suppose a draw is a fair result.

"The worst thing that happened to us was half-time. I thought we played really well in the first half and if anything I was disappointed not to come in more than 1-0 up.

"Give us credit first half, but I thought West Ham were very good second half. They pinned us back and our lads had to defend for their lives."