West Ham boss frustrated with the Hammers

Sam Allardyce was left frustrated by his side's performance at home as West Ham blew the chance to go top of the Championship.

The Hammers, needed a win to topple League leaders Southampton.

West Ham dominated the game against Watford only to fall behind to a deflected second-half strike from teenager Sean Murray.

The East London side were grateful to an 87th minute equaliser from Ricardo Vaz Te which salvaged a 1-1 draw.

*Manager Allardyce admitted: *

"We just can't seem to find the cutting edge here at Upton Park."

"We haven't shown enough quality to see off Watford and we almost paid the price.

"Watford are a stubborn unit, but you have to accept that and based on chances missed it's disappointing. If you are not clinical it's a struggle and we nearly ended up losing this one."

"At least we had the ability and desire to claw it back to 1-1."

*He added: *

"It all boils down to sticking the ball in the back of the net. If we'd had Rickie Lambert in our team we'd have won the Championship already!

"It's a psychological blow because we could have gone top and also got nearer to our two-point per game target."

The hosts paid for those missed chances when rookie midfielder Murray took aim from 20 yards in the 68th minute, with his shot taking a deflection off Abdoulaye Faye and going in off Rob Green's post.

West Ham laid siege to the Watford goal but Faubert, Kevin Nolan and Sam Baldock all fluffed opportunities to equalise before Vaz Te finally struck, also in off the post, with three minutes of normal time remaining.

Watford had to survive nine minutes of stoppage time, including a penalty appeal for handball against Carl Dickinson, after a nasty head injury to Dale Bennett.

The Hornets defender was stretchered off in a neck brace after a clash of heads with team-mate John Eustace and taken to hospital.

Happily, manager Sean Dyche revealed that doctors suspect the injury is not as serious as it first looked.

Watford boss Sean Dyche said:

"It's a good result in a sense that we are realistic, coming to a place like this with the players and finances that we can only dream about.

"We knew we were in for a tough task but we believe in what we do and that was on show tonight.

"The tinge of disappointment is that their goal is a foul, anywhere else on the pitch it's given."