West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce has praised the attitude of James Collins.

Collins has found himself on the outer this season.

Allardyce wrote in the London Evening Standard: "One of the unluckiest players in the squad right now is central defender James Collins. He's hardly put a foot wrong and no words of mine would do anything to minimise his disappointment and the feeling he has been unfairly treated. That's what I mean, though, about fine margins.

"What accentuates the problem is that we were knocked out of the Capital One Cup early on and because we're not in Europe, there is no opportunity to rotate as with some other clubs."