A travelling army of 5,500 East Enders roared Hammers
onto a sensational 3-0 victory at the JJB Stadium that Wigan
Athletic boss, Paul Jewell, conceded was fully deserved.
And with only two matches remaining, those three fantastic points
have surely given West Ham United real hope of avoiding the dreaded
drop.
"Driving into the ground all we could see was claret and
blue," acknowledged Alan Curbishley after strikes by Luis Boa
Morte, Yossi Benayoun and Marlon Harewood left his side level on
points with wobbling Wigan and just one adrift of free-falling
Fulham.
"Those fans have been constant ever since I arrived but
coming here today we asked the players which team was going to turn
up - the one that lost at Sheffield United or the one that played
so well against Everton? Thankfully, it was last Saturday's
one.
"It was so vital to score the first goal today and once we got
it we looked strong.
"After yesterday's events, there was so much negative
publicity in the newspapers that we wanted to grab a chance to get
some positive stuff in tomorrow's press and, hopefully,
we've now done that.
"I've been saying that it isn't over ever since the
Tottenham game but we've needed to win the majority of our
games.
"We've shown a lot of ability recently and now it's
important that we continue to do ourselves justice in our final two
matches.
"We're still relying on other things and I still think
that we need 38 points to give ourselves a chance but there's
no reason why we can't use our current momentum to get even
more between now and the end of the season."