Nolan hails happy Hammer O’Brien

West Ham 1 Stoke 1

O’Brien’s goal cancelled out a first-half effort from international team-mate Jon Walters and although disappointed the Hammers were unable to claim three points that would have lifted them to fifth, Nolan was delighted for the full-back.

“He had a tough two years out with a bad knee injury,” Nolan said.

“Last year he was fantastic and this year he has been even better, he is getting stronger and stronger.

“All the lads have a great camaraderie we were delighted for him.’’

Nolan, though, felt the Hammers were unlucky not to claim victory.

“We were unlucky in the end and we had enough chances,” he said.

“It is a great result after going 1-0 down and these lads they make it tough for you, they played well tonight. I thought we did, we were unlucky, we were a bit gutted because we wanted to get the win to go fifth.”

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce agreed, stating: “I thought we deserved three (points) in the end. Stoke were slightly better than us in the first half and we had to recover from what was an extremely good goal.

“Having to come from 1-0 down in any game in the Premier League is difficult.

“(It’s) another point on the board, we move on reasonably happy.”

For his part, Stoke boss Tony Pulis hailed his side’s resilience.

He said: “I thought we played really well in the first half but fair play to West Ham.

“Their crowd really, really got behind them and we showed a lot of resilience in the second half.”

Pulis revealed the opening goal had come as a result of work on the training pitch.

Walters finished the move off with a pinpoint shot from a low corner after several Stoke players had played important parts in the move.

Pulis said: “We had worked on it for two or three days and never scored a goal in training doing it. Luckily tonight it went in for us.

“I’m not supposed to say this but we obstructed a player (for the goal).”

Stoke have yet to win away from home this season but midfielder Charlie Adam is confident a first three points on the road are not too far away.

“With performances like that and away from home, a victory won’t be a problem and hopefully it can come soon,’’ he said.

WEST HAM: Jaaskelainen, O’Brien (Demel 77), Reid, Tomkins, McCartney, Noble, Nolan, Diame, O’Neil, Carroll (Cole 85), Maiga (Taylor 85).

STOKE: Begovic, Cameron, Huth, Shawcross, Wilkinson (Shotton 32), Whelan (Palacios 62), Adam, Nzonzi, Walters, Crouch, Etherington (Kightly 74).

Ref: Chris Foy (Merseyside).