Gianfranco Zola paid tribute to his young charges despite the disappointment of an undeserved 2-1 defeat away at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.
The manager is firmly committed to youthful talent, underlined by the four homegrown Hammers involved in James Tomkins, Jack Collison, Mark Noble and Freddie Sears but that quartet were not the only youngsters on view. There were three other under 23's who took part in Jonathan Spector, Valon Behrami and Savio - and Zola said all would learn from the experience.
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"The only complaint I have is we didn't take the chances we created," he said. "It is a pity because the performance was the performance of a team that didn't deserve it. This is football, you cannot afford to concede anything to Premier League teams because they take advantage [if you let them] so it is a good lesson for us for the future."
While the youngsters kept going in difficult circumstances, the manager paid tribute to Scott Parker - the shining light in the spine of England internationals also featuring Robert Green, Matthew Upson and Carlton Cole running through his team. "He was excellent," Zola said. "He was all over the place.
"He has got desire, he has got passion, he has got the game, he has got everything to be a successful player for us but he has been playing all the time very well." It was Parker who gave the Hammers hope with a second-half equaliser but the team were unable to get the vital second with Noble - whose yellow card means a suspension against Manchester City next Sunday - Cole and David Di Michele all being frustrated.
The manager did acknowledge the brilliance of Bolton's opener - a tenth-minute free-kick by Matthew Taylor quickly followed by Kevin Davies' scrambled second. "The first goal was, let's be honest, a great goal. That is football - if somebody puts the ball in the top corner you can't do anything about that."
"The second one maybe we should have done better. That was the difference - certainly nothing else was because nobody could disagree with me if I say we played better than them. We knew what kind of team Bolton are and we knew the first 15 minutes would be vital."
There was another positive with Cole coming through the 90 minutes unscathed after an ankle injury last week had threatened his involvement. The manager said: "He trained yesterday and he was OK. I spoke to him before the match and he felt perfectly right and it proved to be right because he played a good match."
However, the news is not so optimistic on James Collins, who suffered a hamstring injury moments after Bolton's second. "He is going to have a problem. It is a hamstring. How long it is going to be I don't know but it is not looking very good. We don't know. He is going to have a scan. It is a pity because James has been playing very well and we are going to have to lose him for a while."