Blues boss Paul Jewell felt his side thoroughly deserved their 1-0 victory over West Ham at Upton Park with former Hammer Lee Bowyer netting a late winner. The result was an early birthday present for Jewell, who celebrates his 47th birthday on Wednesday.

Jewell said: “I thought in the first half we were terrific, we passed the ball really well. Chops had a good opportunity and we’ve hit the inside of the post.

“Obviously they were always going to be a threat from set pieces and stuff, but I thought we really passed the ball well in the first half and should have gone in ahead. In the second half we weren’t quite as fluid but we dug in and were resilient.”

The Blues boss says Upton Park is somewhere he enjoys visiting: “It’s quite strange, when I was at Wigan, we used to beat West Ham most times here and they used to always beat us at home.

“It’s a great place to come and play football. It’s a lovely stadium, it’s a passionate ground. We knew we had to do a job on the crowd first and try and keep the ball and try and make them impatient. Credit to our players, I thought in the first half we were terrific.”

Jewell, whose side are up to 11th but on the same points as Peterborough in seventh, was pleased with the way his team kept going to the final whistle, despite most of them having played a lot of football over the last week: “It’s three games in eight days and it’s been the same team.

“Football’s a funny old game, as they say, and confidence is there. A month ago we looked bereft of ideas. We looked as if we couldn’t pick our feet up. We’ve had a little bit of a change of fortune and the players are full of confidence.”

The Town manager says Bowyer has a good goals record against his old club: “I think I read in the programme Mark Noble saying that Lee Bowyer has a habit of scoring against West Ham. It was obviously a great moment for him getting his first goal for us.

“In the first half I was expecting the one that hit the post to go in. You start to wonder if it’s going to be your night, but we kept going and on the break we had some good situations that we didn’t make the most of, but fair play to the players, I thought we deserved the win tonight.”

The clean sheet was Town’s third in a row, the first time they have achieved such a run since March 2005 when they beat Nottingham Forest 6-0, Cardiff City 1-0 and then drew 0-0 with Gillingham.

Jewell was full of praise for his two new centre-halves: “They’ve been terrific, Sonko and Danny Collins. You know what you’re going to get out of them — honesty.

“It’s a tough place to come. Carlton Cole and then John Carew on as substitute, they’re a handful and we did really well. We’re not the biggest team in the world and I was pleased with that side of the game as well.”

Overall, the Town manager was looking forward to Wednesday’s birthday celebrations: “It’s a great birthday present, it’ll make the 40th tomorrow very happy!”

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce was angry that his side conceded their fourth late goal of the season but admitted his team were second best, particularly in the first half.

Allardyce says the Blues are the best team the Hammers have played so far and expects them to be in the shake-up come May: “For two years now they’ve spent a lot of money. What was it £18-£20 million that Roy spent in his first year?

“Jagger [Jewell] hasn’t spent that much but like myself has picked up some good experienced players that have got a lot of experience in the Premier League.

“They came together very nicely in the Coventry game and at Middlesbrough, and certainly today they’ve punished us.

“I think they’re as good a side as we’ve met, I have to say, even though we were poor and I was disappointed with the way we played. Some of that you have to put down to how well Ipswich played.”

Photo: Action Images

Lightningboy added 12:37 - Sep 28 Brilliant stuff..I imagine there are a few people on here quite embarrassed by their remarks a week or so ago. Keep it up PJ..and happy birthday.
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tomisamos added 12:55 - Sep 28 Even if Collins and Andrews don't sign permanently (which I think they will) I think we've got a manager capable of finding the right quality to replace them. Potentially the best town side since the likes of Magilton, Bent and De Vos, looks like we might be going somewhere finally!
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bobble added 13:02 - Sep 28 told u we were going up, now just need that number 1 slot to pay for be grog for a year ha ha ha
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dan_itfc55 added 13:43 - Sep 28 dont know why people are saying we need a new right back i thought carlos edwards was the stand out performer last night, and so did a lot of the west ham fans i spoke to
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IvorFeeling added 13:44 - Sep 28 Bobble - think that the Aussie's will let you down on your double though. Lol
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Garv added 13:46 - Sep 28 He doesn't deserve all the criticism he gets.
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GTRKing added 16:37 - Sep 28 Sounds like a great game & I listened on the radio & we will thrash brighton on sat. Happy B day P.J Keep up the good work
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jas0999 added 18:30 - Sep 28 Brilliant result. If PJ continues to play 4-4-2 and attacking football then great. No complaints at all. Thankfully the boring 8 months of his reign appear to be over. Hopefully we can press on. Like others though, am still concerned with the goalkeeping situation and also what will happen when we lose Collins for some tricky Christmas games.
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TimmyH added 20:53 - Sep 28 Great result - best of the season, let's hope we've turned the corner. I really think changing the central defence has boosted the confidence of the whole team and once you get that winning mentality the sky's the limit! Great job PJ and the team.
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bluelady added 21:32 - Sep 28 Jas we are not playing four four two its a four one two one two formation and we have ingermarson who should cover the few games till Collins comes back on a perm!! Anyway we will have run away with the league by then!!
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choprawontcome added 23:09 - Sep 28 great result boys,very proud,onwards & upwards from here on in :))))
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SpecialK79 added 12:22 - Sep 29 yep does seem as if pmason has now gone into hiding lol i still think he's a budgie! brilliant result, was going mad when bowyer stuck the ball in the net, also nice to be waving cheerio to the west ham fans! spoke to a west ham fan on train back and he also admitted we we're by far the better team and best team they've come up against all season. faith in PJ to keep us on up :D

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