West Ham deserved more, says Allardyce

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce said his team deserved more than a point after a late Kevin Nolan goal snatched a 1-1 draw with Sunderland.

Allardyce felt his side had controlled the match by creating more chances, and he was bemoaning his side’s profligacy in front of goal.

He told reporters: “I thought we deserved more than that, on the balance of play. I thought from start to finish we were the dominant side, created far more of the chances than the opposition did.

“And because we didn’t capitalize on our creating of chances by having enough players showing a clinical type of finish either with their head or their foot today, we’ve ended up having to be satisfied with the draw rather than the victory.

“So we are relieved and happy that we’ve got a point because irrespective of who was the better side going into the 90th minute we were a goal down, and Kevin Nolan scored a fantastic goal for us, could have scored three or four today, (with) the opportunities that he got.

“So we are relieved that we got a point and we continue undefeated. But we are disappointed, and we’ll wake up disappointed tomorrow, knowing that we should have really won the game on the chances we created. But we didn’t.”

Matt Jarvis, a second half replacement for Matt Taylor, was credited with sparking West Ham into action, and Allardyce was happy to see his decision come to fruition.

“Substitutions play a big part in every manager’s life today,” he said.

“If you don’t make them, you’re useless. If you do, and they don’t have an effect, you’re useless again.

“If you put them on and they work, you take all the praise.”

Sunderland manager Martin O’Neill admitted he was frustrated to see his men concede a late equalising goal.

The Hammers controlled much of the match and recorded 20 shots on goal to four, but O’Neill’s side were heading for the win before Nolan denied the away side in stoppage time.

Following the dramatic finish at Upton Park, O’Neill told reporters: “The manner in which the goal was scored, and obviously the timing, were obviously disappointing. Just when I thought we’d seen it through.

“We looked as if we dealt with just about everything they had thrown at us, and we were never able to kill the game off.

“We still had those great opportunities to score, particularly in the second half, and as West Ham were pressing forward, leaving the door open, with a bit more care we should have taken advantage of that.

“I know they were on the break, but (we were) two versus two on a couple of occasions, and there was a great ball by (James) McClean when I thought that David Vaughan might have scored.”