Sam Allardyce said he and his squad were “gutted” following their defeat to Cardiff City yesterday (Sunday).

The Hammers were hit by a late strike from former Rangers forward Kenny Miller, costing them a point in a game where they had looked on top.

West Ham had gone close to taking a lead on many occasions with Frederic Piquionne and James Tomkins going the closest before Millers’ goal at the death ensured Cardiff returned to Wales with all three points.

Allardyce believes that his side’s failure to take their chances ultimately cost them.

Speaking after the game, he said: “Well we are gutted because of our performance in terms of chances created today and not converted.

“I think that is the biggest problem we saw today – not burying a team when you are in the ascendency and not finishing them off and professional football then kicks you right where it hurts sometimes and today was exactly that.

“We didn’t get the clean sheet we were looking for and we didn’t get the win that we wanted.

“We should have at least come away with a point and said ‘ok, we have created a lot of chances, we have made a lot of opportunities, we haven’t converted them into three points which is what we all wanted but we have started from a good solid defensive basis today’.

“And then unfortunately we get the slip at the end and we get punished heavily for that and we are all very disappointed that there are zero points after the first game of the season when we know we should have had three, but if not three like I said to the players ‘If you can’t win a game of football make sure you don’t lose it, top the points up as they go along and then you get enough at the end of the season to get yourself promoted'.

“So it is a big big loss the point, never mind that we all know we should have had three.”