Slaven Bilic admitted to a feeling of extreme disappointment after he saw three points slip through his team’s grasp at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.
West Ham looked on course for a memorable derby victory after goals from Michail Antonio and Manuel Lanzini put them 2-1 up with the finishing line in sight.
But a cruel, late double from Harry Kane not only wiped out their lead, but kept the points in north London.
It was incredibly harsh on the Hammers after a bright performance took them to the brink of victory and Bilic could not hide his frustration at full time.
The boss said: “We are extremely disappointed. We were 2-1 up with three or four minutes to go and [before that] we had three really good opportunities to score the third one.
“When you are up with three minutes to go you want to win the game. Ok, they can equalise, but to concede two goals – one of which a penalty – is hard to take.
“You have to be smart. Son did a good move, our player went down a bit too quickly – well, it turned out to be that that way, but he wanted the best of course.
“We were the better side in the first half hour of the game. They started to push after that and we began to lose the ball quite quickly, but then in the second half after they equalised they had momentum.
“We scored and then it was a crucial time to hold on, or to score a third one because we had a couple of really good counter-attacks – not with one or two players, but with four.
“We should have killed the game.”
The Hammers suffered a further late blow when Winston Reid saw red in stoppage time and Bilic knows the Hammers need to bounce back quickly with a tough run of fixtures coming up.
He added: “It would have been important for us to get something out of the game, because we have a tough schedule, but then again we have shown that we can put really good performances in and we have chances against whoever we play.
“The red card is another blow for us because Winston was really good today – excellent in anticipating the ball when they played through the middle. It was a bit harsh and now we lose him for one game.”