Manuel Pellegrini bemoaned the Hammers’ luck after they were pegged back by a wickedly-deflected Wilfried Ndidi goal in the final minute of Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Leicester City.
With half-time approaching, the Hammers led 1-0 thanks to Fabian Balbuena’s close-range finish, but the complexion of the game changed when Mark Noble was shown a 37th minute red card for a high challenge on Ndidi.
Pellegrini felt the Hammers did a good job of restricting Leicester’s opportunities after the break, only for Ndidi to find a way past Fabianski – with the help of a looping deflection off Balbuena – right at the end.
The manager admitted that the team were disappointed not to come away with all three points, and said that attitude was reflective of his side’s desire on the pitch.
“The mood in the dressing room was not that we’ve got a good point,” he said. “Playing away with one player less for 60 minutes of the game, most of the time you are happy [with a point], but not in this case because we were very unlucky with the goal that Leicester scored and after the goal we had another opportunity to score.
“I’m very proud of the way the team is playing, the way the team is thinking as a big team, and the mentality of the players is to try to win away.
“When it was eleven v eleven, we were playing really well and after that we defended very well.
“I haven’t seen the red card back yet so I can’t give my opinion, but I always respect the decision of the referee.
“Playing with that fight in the second half was the only way, because we were winning 1-0, we had one player less and we had nine players out injured so we didn’t have too many chances to make changes from the bench.
“The players who came in did very well also, and we defended with order and organisation.”