Allardyce thrilled with Morrison improvement

Sam Allardyce singled out midfielder Ravel Morrison’s contribution following West Ham’s superb 3-0 victory away to Tottenham on Sunday.

After a goalless opening period at White Hart Lane, Allardyce’s side scored three times in 13 minutes to win away at Tottenham for the first time since 1999.

Winston Reid tapped home the opener before Ricardo Vaz Te doubled the advantage.

The best was saved for last, however, as Morrison picked up the ball in his own half before holding off challenges from Michael Dawson and Jan Vertonghen to fire past Hugo Lloris.

The former Manchester United player has faced criticism in the past, but Allardyce believes that the club are finally getting the best out of his talent.

“He’s 20, but he’s quite old in terms of years,” said the West Ham boss. “He’s learnt so much in a short period of time.

“That’s the beauty. The penny has dropped.

“Sir Alex Ferguson (Morrison’s manager at Manchester United) told me ‘I hope you can sort him out because you will have a top-class player on your hands’.

“I’m not sure I’ve done that but he’s enjoying his football. He can do something no one else can do and we saw that today.”

Having seen his side register an away victory for the first time this season, Allardyce conceded he was surprised with the margin of the result.

He added: “I never saw that coming, I have to admit that.

“What I was hoping for today was to continue our huge defensive stability. Our problem has been scoring goals, we know that.

“We haven’t been far away, we’ve created chances and not converted. We’ve always known we’re extremely good defensively.”