Into the top four with eight games to go, you must be absolutely delighted with your night's work?
Yeah we are, we are thrilled. People are mentioning that top four again, we have bobbed in and out of it this season so let's hope we can do everything we can to stay there.
Obviously, there was a big blow with losing Declan Rice before the game. You must be pleased with the response that the team gave?
Yeah the team has been playing great this season and Declan has been part of that but the team has been doing great.
We talk about the team more than the individuals, we recognise that we have some very good individual players but we are more interested in how the team performers and we didn't half do great tonight.
Jesse Lingard, scored one, assisted one, had a hand in the other, what did you make of his contribution overall?
He was fantastic tonight, he really was. For twenty/thirty minutes he was incredibly good and then for the rest of it he was a great team player for us and helped us do all the jobs that we needed to do to hang in the game at different times. I am really pleased and told him coming off how well he played.
There were a couple of injuries and we had used all the subs so he had to keep going, there is a boy out there who is trying to prove exactly what he is and Jesse is trying to do that and he is making a good go at it.
You must have been a bit concerned with the Wolves fight back, especially after what happened against Arsenal recently?
Yeah, massively concerning but we just about got away with it tonight so good on us, that's an improvement from the last one.
It was tough, but we played well for periods in the game and so did Wolves, they have good players and they are a good team.
If you had gone in 3-0 in front would it have been a much easier second half?
Yes, I believe so, it was like deja vu from the Arsenal game a couple of weeks ago when we did the exact same thing.
I think it was Cressie [Aaron Cresswell] who had it and he crossed it in when we were trying to go for a fourth goal, it would have been just as easy to keep the ball and keep things under control so managing the game is something we need to do much better.
But at that moment we were in such a good position I think the players were thinking that we could keep trying to score. And the form with which Michail Antonio was playing in the first half and Jesse Lingard I think that whenever we got anywhere near them there was a chance of getting a goal.
There is a noticeable change in tone from you, I heard you say on TV that 'we are going to go for it now' is that how you feel?
Yes, but I don't know if we are in the final furlong yet, well we are certainly not in the final furlong yet. We have probably got to go over becher's brook and a couple of big jumps on our way in so we have got to do that.
But let's be fair we are challenging, why should we not? A few people are talking about us being in and around the top four and after 30 games that is not a fluke we are in there because we have been playing well. Can we play well enough in the remaining eight games? Let's hope so.
You proved you can win without Dec [Rice] that must be a big psychological thing?
What I have always thought is that it is the team which is more important, it is more important that we focus on the team. Dec is an incredible loss for us and may prove to be a big loss for us which I think any team in this country would miss Dec but we have to find other ways of doing it.
We need other players to step up and thankfully tonight they did.
Jesse seemed to pull up a little at the end, is he alright?
I didn't check on Jesse at the end, I think he got raked down the back of the ankle, that is what I thought it was but I have not seen him. Tomas [Soucek] was the same, he has got a cut in his ankle where it looks like a stud has gone through, and obviously Micky [Antonio] too.
Most of this season we have been quite fortunate with injuries and had the players in really good physical condition, which has helped. But unfortunately, we are just beginning too... playing for us is not so bad, it is not so good when they get injured playing for their country, that makes it harder to take.
What drives the collective spirit? How do you keep everyone on board when they are not playing and then have to come in?
I think honestly, sometimes not having a big squad helps and it sounds as if I might go onto say other things in the weeks to come possibly but at the moment I think being able to have everybody close to the team and be part of it and have everyone around it...
Fabi Balbuena was great for us for a period, Seb Haller contributed a lot when Antonio was out, so we have a good squad but we can't afford too many of them to pick up injuries but if you have too many injuries it sometimes becomes harder, so I am really happy with the players and the squad I have got.
I just hope we have as many of them as fit as we can between now and the end of the season.
You seem to be enjoying talking about Champions League qualification whereas some managers seem to be scared of it a bit. Does it help you enjoy it?
Who would have been saying that West ham would be in the top four with eight games to go last year.
If I had said that to you, you would have all rolled about holding your bellies laughing at me if I said that so let's put it in perspective. The players have been unbelievable, I don't know if we can finish there, the teams around us are much stronger, more equipped, been there done it many more times and we have not, so why should we not try and enjoy it?
I have been a manager who has been around a lot so I have decided to say 'we are going to go for it and see if we can do it' - if we fall short then we fall short but I don't think we will have ever fallen short this season of what was expected of West Ham, we have achieved that already.
The team ran a combined 119km so I guess for all the sexy football that you played tonight I guess getting that balance between hard work is important?
I think when you are trying to build a team and get consistency you are going to need consistent effort and commitment every week.
The boys who watch West Ham every week will tell you that. There have been very few games where we have not had that and we are very fortunate we have two or three boys who are committed runners and who are good at it and I hope we keep it up.
I know that we have been getting stronger and I want us to get stronger in the last eight games so we are not letting players have days off and saying well done.
We have actually not done anything yet in truth and this is the business end and can we stay in amongst it right till the end, who knows? I am not sure we will but that is the message that is going out to the players.
