Gianfranco Zola simply could not stop smiling as his first game in charge ended in a fantastic 3-1 win over Newcastle United.
David Di Michele scored two and then set up Matthew Etherington for a third before Michael Owen bagged a consolation for the visitors. The result left West Ham United fourth in the Premier League table on Saturday evening and Zola was understandably delighted. He said: "A victory and some good football as well so I'm very proud of the players, they did fantastically well. For 70 minutes it was very good but we had to concede something because we tried to play an offensive game and the players had run a lot. In the last minutes they went down physically a bit but I'm very pleased."
Zola's fellow Italian Di Michele also enjoyed his first taste of action at the Boleyn Ground and the manager was delighted by his, and his fellow strike partners' efforts. Zola said. "He played very well but from my point of view he should share the fame with the other two strikers, Matthew Etherington and Carlton Cole, who have been unbelievable. Sometimes Cole was playing against two or three defenders but he was keeping them busy so he's played a brilliant game too."
Zola played with Cole at Chelsea and remembers enough from those days to clearly have a lot of confidence in his No12 and even had a word for the watching Fabio Capello. "He started playing with me and I think he can become much better than he is. He has to improve a few things but he's got all the qualities to be playing for the national team so it's all down to him."
The visitors scored midway through the second half to give themselves hope, but the new manager was sure that his team were always going to prevail. "I was confident because the players were well organised and they were not conceding too much to Newcastle and after that we had a couple of great chances to score. I was confident we were going to win today," he said.
Zola experimented with a new-look 4-3-3 formation that saw Julien Faubert at right-back and Lucas Neill at centre-half and the manager was more than pleased with the Australian's commanding performance in the new role. He said: "I know that he plays there for the national team so it's nothing new for him. We'll see how he progresses but at the moment I'm happy.
"I like this system [4-3-3], it's a system that allows nice football and it can be very effective. For the moment we will carry on playing this way but when we have [Dean] Ashton and [Craig] Bellamy back we will see, but for today I am very happy," Zola added. "It is a new adventure for me ... you don't know how the players are going to react to what you're telling them so you are aware of many things. To be honest they made it very comfortable for me."
Zola, who was determined before kick-off to focus on the game, received a "fantastic" east-end welcome when he first came to the touchline, but had an apology to those fans asking for a wave. He said: "The reception has been fantastic. I do apologise to them as they told me they were shouting my name asking for a wave but I couldn't hear anything! ... They've been very supportive to me but also to the players."
The result leaves the Hammers in fourth, but Zola is not getting carried away just yet. "We know that it is going to be very tough ... For us it is important to improve the position we had last year. To be honest if the players work like they did last week we can get a lot of satisfaction - that's the way you can improve. It's all down to them, to their attitudes and the way they carry on working. If we do that we've got a a chance to improve the situation.