Gianfranco Zola insists West Ham’s battling 2-2 draw at Everton proves his players can ignore the criticism from their club’s owner and avoid relegation from the Premier League.
Zola and his players had to endure the indignity of Hammers co-owner David Sullivan launching several public attacks on their ability during a run of six successive defeats which threatened to plunge the team into the relegation zone.
The criticism combined with last weekend’s defeat to Stoke forced Zola to consider his future, but the Italian opted to stay and try to keep the London outfit in the top-flight.
PHOTO: REUTERS
And judging by the gutsy way they twice came back from a goal down to claim a priceless point at Goodison Park on Sunday, the squad remain firmly behind their boss.
The Hammers are still in trouble as third bottom Hull can dump them into the relegation zone if they win their game in hand, but former Chelsea forward Zola is convinced the squad are fully focused on staying up — regardless of the pressure put on them by Sullivan.
“We don’t want to focus on anything other than the football. Other things we cannot stop — people want to give opinions — but we are 100 percent focused on the field,” he said.
PHOTO: AFP
“We have been together. All this season has made us stronger, for sure,” he said. “It is a difficult situation but we don’t want to stop fighting.”
After giving his players three days off this week and then flying home to Sardinia to clear his mind, Zola knew a defeat could have been the last straw for Sullivan.
So the Italian must have feared the worst when he lost midfielder Valon Behrami to an injury in the pre-match warm-up, then saw Diniyar Bilyaletdinov give Everton a first half lead and watched as Mido’s penalty was saved by Tim Howard.
That would have been enough to finish off many struggling teams, yet Manuel Da Costa scrambled a 60th-minute equalizer.
After Ayegbeni Yakubu’s 85th minute header looked to have won it for Everton, Brazilian substitute Araujo Ilan dived to head in Julien Faubert’s cross with three minutes left.
“We never gave up. We came back in the second half, we equalized and played well,” Zola said.
“Their second goal could have been a blow for everybody but we reacted and scored an equalizer straight away. We showed we don’t give up,” he said.
■FULHAM 2, WIGAN 1
AFP, LONDON
Fulham pushed Wigan deeper into the relegation dogfight as second-half goals from Stefano Okaka and Brede Hangeland clinched their win over the Latics on Sunday.
Roy Hodgson’s side trailed to Jason Scotland’s first half goal at Craven Cottage, but Okaka equalized for the hosts early in the second half before Hangeland headed the winner that leaves Wigan just four points above the relegation zone.
While Fulham will go into the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final against Wolfsburg in good spirits, Wigan are facing a grim struggle to beat the drop.
However, Hodgson was frustrated with the crowd’s reaction to Fulham’s first half display and he said: “I am just taking the moment really to remind the fans we do still try to give them everything but there is going to come a time in these last six games when I’m pretty sure we will disappoint them.”
“All I am saying is that it would be nice if people showed some sympathy and understanding for that. They don’t deserve people shouting ‘wake-up.’ It is not a question of waking-up, it is a question of getting tired legs going again in a tough Premier League game,” he said.
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