Sam Allardyce's concern as big men fall short

Last night's 1-0 defeat by table-topping Southampton will give the West Ham manager food for thought and perhaps confirm that his team, although competitive, may still fall just short of the best teams in the Championship.

While West Ham are able to beat the majority of sides in the league, they have struggled against the better ones, namely Cardiff, Leeds, Ipswich and now the Saints who, as a result of their win, have opened up a five-point lead at the top of the table.

Allardyce is not the panicking type but last night's defeat will have, if nothing else, diluted the big man's 57th birthday celebrations today.

Before the season started, Allardyce declared that it would be difficult to go back up to the Premier League if the team lost more than eight of their 46 League matches. Their defeat was West Ham's third so far with a quarter of the season gone which may be a contributory factor in Allardyce's decision to consider the loan option.

The West Ham manager has already said he will only consider a move if it adds quality to the squad who have lost David Bentley for the rest of the season, following his knee injury.

One possibility remains Carlos Tevez who, while the longest of longshots, remains on West Ham's radar as Manchester City decide what to do next with their disaffected Argentine.

Southampton's winner just before half-time, coming as it did from a corner headed in unchallenged by defender Jos Hooiveld, particularly irritated Allardyce, who was also critical of his strikers at wasting the chances which came their way.

Sam Baldock may have scored two against Blackpool on Saturday but he missed two good chances while John Carew was well shackled by a competent Southampton defence.

West Ham full-back Julien Faubert summed things up when he said: "We didn't start the first half well and after that, I don't think we were good enough. We didn't pass the ball when we had to, we didn't squeeze them when we had to and when we had chances to score, we didn't take them.

"We didn't keep the ball enough and when we played the ball forward, we didn't support the strikers or win the second balls."

West Ham's next two matches, away at Brighton next Monday and at home to Leicester five days later, will go a long way to making up Allardyce's mind whether he considers it necessary to add to his squad although, in the short term, he will need a replacement for Matt Taylor, who lasted only 20 minutes before going off with a calf injury.

"On our second-half performance we deserved something but unfortunately our sharp-shooting goalscorers, who were magnificent on Saturday, couldn't find either their shooting boots or their heading ability against Southampton," said Allardyce.

"We conceded the softest of goals in the first half especially when we practise so much at set-plays. We're arguably one of the biggest sides in the league but our big men couldn't head the ball out to stop us going 1-0 down.

"It's more disappointing when you lose to a set-play. The disappointing thing for me was that we were clinical on Saturday but woefully short of being clinical against Southampton.

"Even in the first half, Sam Baldock has had a chance which dropped down to him in the six-yard box and you would have expected him to score that based on his ability.

"John Carew had another chance late in the first half but his header went wide of the post and in the second half Kevin Nolan had two good chances while Sam put another one half an inch the wrong side of the post.

"It's a big disappointment to lose our away record and now we're five points behind Southampton. We knew it was a difficult game because they have the best home record in the League."

Southampton manager Nigel Adkins, in contrast, was more than satisfied.

"It was a good three points," he said. "We played some excellent football in the first half and moved the ball about really well.

"In the second-half, we had to defend at times against a West Ham team who have just come down from the Premier League and have every chance of going straight back up."