Pardew: Hard work ahead for Hammers

West Ham manager Alan Pardew admitted his Hammers have work to do after losing 3-1 at home to Wigan in the Coca-Cola Championship yesterday.

The fans were clearly disappointed with their team’s below-par display with chants of “Brown out” aimed at managing director Terry Brown.

Pardew may worry that more performances like this could see the taunts redirected in his direction.

“I always knew this was a tough job,” he said. “The crowd need to be inspired here and we haven’t given them a display to cheer. You have got to accept their disappointment. I can’t defend a performance like that.

“We need to play with some passion and pride for the West Ham badge and it will be there by the next game.

“It was not good enough. We lost battles all over the pitch and had no answer to their aerial power up front. We have some work to do.”

Wigan, meanwhile, are top of the table after their second win in London in five days.

Manager Paul Jewell, whose team won at Millwall on Tuesday, said: “It was a great performance, very controlled with some fantastic football played.

“The game was too open for my liking but we managed to dominate. It certainly wasn’t easy, but it looked comfortable in the end – but we won’t talk of promotion yet.”

Nathan Ellington put Wigan in front and Jason Roberts added two more before Bobby Zamora’s late consolation for the Hammers.