12:06pm Wednesday 18th April 2012
By Simon Mail
West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has refused to concede defeat in their bid to win automatic promotion despite falling five points behind rivals Southampton with just two games left.
The Hammers could only manage a 1-1 draw at struggling Bristol City last night, while the second-placed Saints eased to victory at Peterborough United.
It means the Irons are facing the prospect of going into the play-offs despite being in the top two of the Championship for much of the season.
Allardyce said: “Well it’s difficult as we know. We wanted to stay with a fighting chance by winning here and getting that bit closer to Southampton, who play Middlesbrough.
“We were always going to have to ask somebody else to do us a favour, and even if we get that with Middlesbrough on Saturday against Southampton, we’ve still got to go and beat Leicester, and it’s still difficult for us having to win our home game and thinking Southampton might slip up. But that’s what we’ve got to believe in and try to do.
“First and foremost, we’ve got to hope Middlesbrough do us a favour and beat Southampton.
“We just have to wait until Saturday now and there is nothing we can do until Monday in terms of how we prepare for Leicester and what we do based on what the Southampton result is,” the manager continued.
“We'll wait and see and after the Saturday game we'll decide what way forward will be best for us and see where we go from there.”
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