Matthew Upson praised manager Gianfranco Zola for sticking to his principles and hailed last night’s ‘massive’ result against Liverpool.
The England centre back put in a man-of-the-match performance in the 0-0 draw at Anfield and helped the team to their third successive clean sheet – following a 27-game run without one.
Zola’s Hammers very nearly ended an even longer run – with the post and a number of poor offside decisions blocking their path to the club’s first win at Anfield since 1963.
The result will have eased some of the pressure on the new manager and Upson said it was no less than the Italian deserved.“He has stuck to his beliefs,” said Upson.
“He’s had a bit of pressure to change it but he has stuck to what he believes in.
“He’s got us more drilled, not just as a defence but as a whole team and maybe he’s beginning to get his just rewards for that.
”Upson was also pleased with the shut out against the league leaders.He said: “It’s a massive result in the scheme of things.
“It’s another clean sheet and perhaps at the end of it we could’ve nicked something but it’s a good resilient performance.
“It’s something we’ve based the last three games on. Keeping clean sheets is a good start but we also looked dangerous on the break as well.
”Wales striker and former Liverpool player Craig Bellamy came within the width of the post of helping the Hammers to their first win at Anfield since Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst helped them to a 2-1 win.
Bellamy said afterwards: “We need points obviously at the moment.
“We tried to make it as frustrating as we could for them by getting men behind the ball but we also tried to attack as well when we had the opportunity and we did have one or two decent opportunities as well.”
The England centre back put in a man-of-the-match performance in the 0-0 draw at Anfield and helped the team to their third successive clean sheet – following a 27-game run without one.
Zola’s Hammers very nearly ended an even longer run – with the post and a number of poor offside decisions blocking their path to the club’s first win at Anfield since 1963.
The result will have eased some of the pressure on the new manager and Upson said it was no less than the Italian deserved.“He has stuck to his beliefs,” said Upson.
“He’s had a bit of pressure to change it but he has stuck to what he believes in.
“He’s got us more drilled, not just as a defence but as a whole team and maybe he’s beginning to get his just rewards for that.
”Upson was also pleased with the shut out against the league leaders.He said: “It’s a massive result in the scheme of things.
“It’s another clean sheet and perhaps at the end of it we could’ve nicked something but it’s a good resilient performance.
“It’s something we’ve based the last three games on. Keeping clean sheets is a good start but we also looked dangerous on the break as well.
”Wales striker and former Liverpool player Craig Bellamy came within the width of the post of helping the Hammers to their first win at Anfield since Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst helped them to a 2-1 win.
Bellamy said afterwards: “We need points obviously at the moment.
“We tried to make it as frustrating as we could for them by getting men behind the ball but we also tried to attack as well when we had the opportunity and we did have one or two decent opportunities as well.”
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