Shannon Cooke was pleased with the work ethic and desire of her teammates as they came from behind and draw 1-1 with Leicester City on Sunday.
The Hammers had been in command for much of the game, and looked as though they were going to rue missed opportunities when Lena Petermann converted from close range on 68 minutes.
And it looked as though it wasn't going to be West Ham United's day as the clocked ticked down and Hawa Cissoko was shown a second yellow card in the fifth minute of additional time, but the game wasn't over yet.
A deflected cross from Princess Ademiluyi fell into the path of Honoka Hayashi, who bundled the ball home from close range with 98 minutes showing on the clock.
It was a goal that the Hammers deserved, and Cooke was pleased with the character shown by her teammates when speaking to West Ham TV at the full time whistle.
"It definitely was a battle," she said after the match.
"We came into the game wanting to come away with three points like we do with every game, but when we went down, I think we showed good grit to come back.
"Not many teams fight like that to make sure they come away with a point. We did deserve to win the game, but we did what we could to make sure we didn't come away empty handed, it's better to leave with one than zero.
"We probably had five clear cut chances, which is really frustrating. I think we need to come back after the break and work on that, because in the WSL, you don't usually get five.
"We were fighting for the whole game and like I said, we deserved the win. It was frustrating that they got the goal, but then we had to fight back, and we were all relieved when the ball hit the back of the net because we'd more than earned it.
"I'm proud of the team for fighting to get back, but going into the new year, we've got to be fighting to get all three more consistently."
It has been a frustrating first half of the season for Cooke and her teammates, where by and large, performance levels have been there, but the team have struggled for points in the Barclays Women's Super League.
Cooke explained that whilst they haven't had the rub of the green where points are concerned, the team believe that the second half of the 2023/24 campaign will prove more fruitful, and they will be able to convert more of those good showings into points.
"This first half of the season, we've been a team that's experienced a lot of change. We've been adapting to a different style, some different players and a new coaching team.
"So I think it'll be exciting what we can do in the second half of the season because we've been doing things that we've been practising, We've not been getting the points, frustratingly, but we've got to make sure that in the second half we get points on a more consistent basis."
