West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce was thrilled with their 1-0 win over Sunderland.

The result was all that mattered to Allardyce after Diafra Sakho's late goal saw West Ham United edge past Sunderland 1-0 at the Boleyn Ground.

"It was a big game and probably our biggest win of the season," the manager told West Ham TV. "It settled everybody's nerves, because you could see the fans have come here so often recently, seen some really good performances and gone away having applauded the lads off the field but disappointed about the result.

"The performance wasn't as good as it was against Manchester United or Chelsea but I'm sure, like us, all they wanted to see was a victory. When it came as late as it did, it is always sweeter that way.

"Our dominance was proven by one stat in particular and that was 42 balls into the Sunderland box. We created and missed our chances, but finally our leading goal scorer has done what we needed him to do more than ever before and that was put the winner in."