Manuel Pellegrini hailed the spirit of his West Ham United team after they came roaring back to defeat Huddersfield Town 4-3 in dramatic style on Saturday.
The Hammers looked dead buried when they fell 3-1 down midway through the second period, but three goals in the final 15 minutes turned the contest on its head.
Angelo Ogbonna got the comeback going with a towering header, before Chicharito added two headed goals of his own.
Pellegrini said the Hammers refused to give up and were rewarded in the best possible style.
“This was a match for the fans,” he said. “Maybe when everyone was disappointed when we were losing 3-1, the biggest merit of the team was we never gave up and continued working.
“We showed a lot of character. We spoke before the game that this was a team that plays well, maybe they don’t score many goals but they are always dangerous from set pieces. They scored their first two from set pieces and after that a great goal put them two in front.
“We had a reaction in that moment, and we knew it would be difficult to score [the goals to come back], but we tried and we did it.”
The boss also had praise for the impact of the subsitutes for turning the course of the game around.
He continued: “Javier was playing well recently, but he had a little pressure of not scoring, so it was good for him to come from the bench, and he played very well and decided the game with two goals.
“I also think Samir Nasri changed the game of our team and Lucas Perez was always dangerous in the box, so the three substitutes did very well and that’s the reason why you need a good squad and not just a team.
“The complete team did not play well in the first 45 minutes. We didn’t play with the pace that we need, we didn’t do the movements we needed to do, and the playmakers that had to put good balls for the attackers.”