Doncaster draw frustrates Big Sam

Sam Allardyce wants his West Ham United side to rediscover that killer instinct at the Boleyn Ground following Saturday's 1-1 draw with Doncaster Rovers.

The Hammers could not capitalise on Kevin Nolan's 9th-minute opener as their visitors fought back to nab a 73rd-minute equaliser through James Coppinger. Chances then came and went at both ends with Jack Collison firing agonisingly wide in the dying seconds for Big Sam's side.

"Like the last couple of home games we couldn't finish the opposition off when we had the opportunity and then we become a little bit nervous," Big Sam said. "We should have won it at the death with Collision's effort 12 yards out but he put it wide. Chances like those are the difference between three points and one."

The Hammers could have been out of sight in the first ten minutes had Ricardo Vaz Te's strike not been ruled out by referee Andy D'Urso and Carlton Cole's effort found the back of the net instead of the crossbar. Sadly for the hosts the lively-looking Vaz Te was forced off with a hamstring injury shortly after and his departure seemed to take the wind out the home side's sails.

"We lost Vaz Te who was causing them a great deal of problems down the left hand side. We had to play George McCartney at right back due to the absence of Joey O'Brien and a few others. We haven't got all the squad available at the moment as we would like but we should still have had enough quality to beat Doncaster.

"We played on Wednesday night and they played on Tuesday which makes a physical difference in the latter stages of the match. We were good, bad and indifferent in this game but if you win that doesn't matter.

"Everyone gets nervous at this stage of the season and it's just about seeing the game off. We got the goal early doors and what I am most disappointed about is that we didn't go on from there and score more."

It was West Ham's second 1-1 draw in the space of four days following the stalemate with Watford on Wednesday evening. Although the two draws mean the Hammers remain unbeaten at home since 3 December, Big Sam knows they must start turning the draws into wins if they are to achieve their promotion goal this season.

"We became a little nervous and lost our fluency allowing Doncaster back into the game. We had the golden chance at the end but we didn't take it and we are just not good enough at home at the moment.

"It's a shame, after our results against Millwall and Southampton we haven't been able to push on."

West Ham must now hope their fine away form continues when they travel to Yorkshire to face Leeds United on Saturday. Big Sam will be hoping to use the coming week to patch-up some of the injuries his squad face with Julien Faubert, Joey O'Brien and Papa Bouba Diop all missing the Doncaster game through injury.

"We knew March was going to be a difficult month with having to play the postponed game against Peterborough. The difficulty is we have injuries we don't need right now. Against Doncaster we have been forced into changes that we didn't want to make. O'Brien and Faubert both dropped out and we need players available to play.

"We want to have our best players on the pitch and at the moment we are not able to do that so we are all suffering. This problem didn't seem to be on the horizon a few weeks ago but we have and we must make sure we deal with it."