West Ham United Football Club News

• Nickname:Hammers
• Founded:1895
• Manager:Sam Allardyce

• Ground:Upton Park
• Capacity:35,595

Zola takes heart from defeat

09 Feb 2009 - 07:43:27

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Gianfranco Zola believes West Ham United can take heart from their performance during Sunday's 1-0 defeat to Manchester United.

The Hammers' first league defeat in six games was greeted by a positive response from the Upton Park fans and manager Zola can understand why.

"I knew it would be difficult if they scored first. You don't expect a team like that to be so strong defensively," said the Italian.

"You expect them to be so good going forward. But Alex (Ferguson) has done a great job as always and they look very, very strong.

"For me it has been a positive match. I know that we lost but today we were playing against the best team in Europe, if not the world, and we just lost by one goal.

"I am happy for my team. It has been another step forward for us even though we lost the game.

"I am sure it won't be easy for anybody to come here and beat us but they did it in a very professional way.

"They just punished the only mistake we made. Our goalkeeper only made one save. When you can win games like this you are very strong."

Meanwhile, Zola believes Carlton Cole has the ability to become a top international striker following his first call-up to the England squad for Wednesday's friendly against Spain.

"I think Carlton will be a very good player for England," said Zola.

"I am sure he will be a good player for him but whether he plays or not I don't know.

"He had a couple of opportunities but he had one man on top of him straightaway.

"Carlton is a player who is improving and I am sure he will get better and better."