Make no mistake, Alan Pardew is expecting a week of graft
and grit from his players ahead of next Sunday's daunting
London derby at Tottenham Hotspur.
"I've always found that you've got to come in, work hard, keep the spirit high and then hope that something will fall for you," announced the Hammers' boss following a sixth-successive defeat at Portsmouth. "But we can, at least, take some grains of confidence from our play today and I'm sure it will happen for us sooner or later.
"I thought Nigel Reo-Coker was absolutely immense in the first half and so was Hayden Mullins, while Matthew Etherington and Paul Konchesky were playing particularly well, too.
"We're not too far away from getting back to what we're about and, after a good honest chat in the dressing room, the players are not too down.
"For me, it was like watching two boxers in a ring and any neutral would have said that it looked like West Ham were going to win today, but then we went and conceded a bad goal and the millstone of not having kept a clean sheet all season affected one or two of my players, who clearly thought: 'Here we go again!'
"We addressed that at half-time, though, came out strongly for the second half and, although Portsmouth were defending well and making it difficult for us, I still felt that we looked like a team that could get a draw, until Andy Cole got their second goal.
"I'm very disappointed with the result because our fans have been very patient but that won't last much longer unless we get a win," acknowledged Pards, whose side have not mustered a victory since the opening day of the season. "Pressure will mount on the players because when you're down at the bottom of the Premiership, the media treatment is a lot different.
"People will pick up on the fact that we've haven't got any clean sheets and we haven't scored since the Aston Villa game either, and we now need to close ranks.
"We certainly can't afford to start panicking and we can't use all the takeover talk as an excuse, even though the media will read things into it.
"As players and staff, we know that the results speak for themselves and we also realise that the confidence and belief has gone missing. We're lacking that little bit of genius and flair in the last third, too, and although my strikers are pretty good on paper they're just not producing so I've got to try and find the right formula for a front pairing.
"Elsewhere, my midfield is solid but I have also got to look at the back four and my goalkeeper because that lack of clean sheets is definitely an issue for us.
"There's a fine balance between not shuffling too much and finding the consistency and the flair that can give us the break that will change the whole face of our results," concluded Pards, as he prepared for next weekend's White Hart Lane showdown.
"At the top level in British football everything has to work. It's the sum of the parts that makes the team but we all realise that we're falling down on that at the moment. We know that we need to turn things around and I'm sure we will."
"I've always found that you've got to come in, work hard, keep the spirit high and then hope that something will fall for you," announced the Hammers' boss following a sixth-successive defeat at Portsmouth. "But we can, at least, take some grains of confidence from our play today and I'm sure it will happen for us sooner or later.
"I thought Nigel Reo-Coker was absolutely immense in the first half and so was Hayden Mullins, while Matthew Etherington and Paul Konchesky were playing particularly well, too.
"We're not too far away from getting back to what we're about and, after a good honest chat in the dressing room, the players are not too down.
"For me, it was like watching two boxers in a ring and any neutral would have said that it looked like West Ham were going to win today, but then we went and conceded a bad goal and the millstone of not having kept a clean sheet all season affected one or two of my players, who clearly thought: 'Here we go again!'
"We addressed that at half-time, though, came out strongly for the second half and, although Portsmouth were defending well and making it difficult for us, I still felt that we looked like a team that could get a draw, until Andy Cole got their second goal.
"I'm very disappointed with the result because our fans have been very patient but that won't last much longer unless we get a win," acknowledged Pards, whose side have not mustered a victory since the opening day of the season. "Pressure will mount on the players because when you're down at the bottom of the Premiership, the media treatment is a lot different.
"People will pick up on the fact that we've haven't got any clean sheets and we haven't scored since the Aston Villa game either, and we now need to close ranks.
"We certainly can't afford to start panicking and we can't use all the takeover talk as an excuse, even though the media will read things into it.
"As players and staff, we know that the results speak for themselves and we also realise that the confidence and belief has gone missing. We're lacking that little bit of genius and flair in the last third, too, and although my strikers are pretty good on paper they're just not producing so I've got to try and find the right formula for a front pairing.
"Elsewhere, my midfield is solid but I have also got to look at the back four and my goalkeeper because that lack of clean sheets is definitely an issue for us.
"There's a fine balance between not shuffling too much and finding the consistency and the flair that can give us the break that will change the whole face of our results," concluded Pards, as he prepared for next weekend's White Hart Lane showdown.
"At the top level in British football everything has to work. It's the sum of the parts that makes the team but we all realise that we're falling down on that at the moment. We know that we need to turn things around and I'm sure we will."