An injury time strike from the in-form James Beattie saw West Ham slip to their sixth defeat in seven games, and further increase the pressure on their boss Glenn Roeder.
The spirited display by his side will come as no consolation to Roeder, who has still yet to see The Hammers register a home win this season.
After the 1-0 defeat against Southampton, furious home fans demonstrated outside the ground, although their anger was directed at Chairman Terence Brown, not Roeder.
Despite West Ham’s position at the foot of the Premier League, Roeder insists he will fight on.
“It’s not my style to take flight when the going gets tough, I’ll stay and fight. I don’t know any other way.”
“I have a lot of confidence in my players, and they have got a lot of confidence in me. We are in a big hole at the moment, but I am confident we can turn it around.”
Certainly the performance showed that the effort is still there, but with the club languishing at the bottom of the Premiership, this may not be enough. With two away games against Middlesbrough and Manchester United coming up in successive weeks, the outlook looks bleak for Roeder.
West Ham received further bad news as striker Paulo Di Canio could be out for the next three weeks after a leg injury forced him to come off near the final whistle. The Italian joins fellow forward Frederic Kanoute on the sidelines.
“If there are any breaks up ahead,” said Roeder, “I just hope they are coming soon.”
