Allardyce witnessed his side spurn a host of chances to win the game before witnessing a typical piece of West Ham defending to allow Cardiff to steal all three points.
“The biggest problem we saw today was not burying a team when you are in the ascendancy and not finishing them off. Professional football then kicks you right where it hurts sometimes and today was exactly that.”
“We should have at least come away with a point and said ‘OK, we have created a lot of chances, we have made a lot of opportunities, we haven’t converted them into three points which is what we wanted but we’ve started from a good solid defensive base today.’
“Unfortunately we get the slip at the end and we get punished heavily for that and we are all very disappointed that there is zero points from the first game of the season when we know we should have had three.
“We say to the players if you can’t win a game of football, make sure you don’t lose it. Tot the points up as they go along and you get enough at the end of the season to get yourself promoted. It is a big loss the point, never mind that we all know we should have had three.”