Bilic gets perfect 49th birthday present with three points from Huddersfield clash

West Ham 2-0 Huddersfield Town 

The three points from this game provided a nice present for West Ham manager Slaven Bilic on the occasion of his 49th birthday.

A clearly relieved Bilic praised his players for "giving everything."

"It was not a case of beautiful football and all that. But we were determined to stick to the game plan,"said Bilic, who revealed a key component of that as being to get Michail Antonio and Andy Carroll in behind the visitors rearguard. 

"Lots of things happened around their box in the first half and we kept our concentration to the end."

Less generous observers might have thought former manager Sam Allardyce was back in charge, as the more direct approach was taken, with crosses and long balls being aimed at Carroll.

The home side, though, could not be faulted for effort as they poured forward from the start at times threatening to over run Huddersfield Town.
Yet, despite all the dominance the two sides went in level at half time, the best chance of the half falling to Chicarito, who slammed the ball against the bar from the edge of the six yard area, having connected with a cross from Antonio - who troubled the visitors all night with his pacey runs.

The home side continued in similar vein in the second half, when lady luck intervened. 

It was the 71st minute when a scrappy period of play saw the ball fall to Pedro Obiang, whose shot took a wicked deflection off defender, Zanka, leaving Huddersfield keeper, Jonas Lossal, wrong footed, as the ball looped over his head into the net. 

Five minutes later, an Aaron Cresswell corner fell kindly in tbe area for Andre Ayew, who stabbed the ball home from a couple of yards out.

The visitors tried to rally, forcing Joe Hart to push a shot round the post. Tom Ince also saw his shot come back off the bar but it was all a case of too little, too late.

Huddersfield boss Dave Wagner was disappointed with his side's performance. "Today we learnt our lessons," he said. "I must be honest, we were not good enough with the ball. We were outfought today."