Sam Allardyce is targeting 'a group of wins' after watching his depleted West Ham United side stumble to a 2-1 npower Championship defeat at Derby County.

Big Sam was without eight injured or suspended players for the New Year's Eve trip to Pride Park and the manager handed first league starts of the season to Gary O'Neil and goalscorer Frank Nouble. Winston Reid also played for the first time in two months after recovering from a dislocated shoulder, while 17-year-old Dan Potts continued at left-back.

The new-look team conceded twice inside the opening ten minutes to hand the Rams the initiative. Nouble's goal three minutes before half-time gave the Hammers hope, but they were unable to find an equaliser despite dominating long periods of the second 45 minutes.

Speaking exclusively to West Ham TV, the manager admitted his side's poor start and inability to convert the many chances they created had cost them dear.

How do you assess a game that saw your team start poorly for ten minutes and concede two goals but then proceed to dominate the remaining 80 minutes?

"It's no good when you've gone 2-0 down and not got the result out of the game. What satisfaction do you get from playing well when you lose? Yes, the lads recovered from a disappointing start but we've got nothing out of the game.

"As well we've played after a horrific ten or 15 minutes at the start, we have faltered in front of goal to get something out of the match. Realistically, we've thrown the game in that opening period.

"It was probably because of our injury and suspension problems that we started so sloppy and a little hesitant. I thought we lacked a little bit of confidence because of the problems that we've had.

"We did recover very well from it and give it a really good go and I think, in the end, deserved a draw out of the game in terms of the other 80 minutes and the chances we created. Again, creating them and scoring them are our achilles heel - we've scored one but we've created enough chances to score two or three but not done it. That wasn't happening in the early part of the season.

"We've got Sam Baldock back who has come off the bench and got a game, we've got Carlton Cole fit and four players coming back from suspension for Monday against Coventry City and that will make us better.

"Winston Reid has played his first game for eight weeks and has only trained for three days so he has done a brilliant job today. I know we let in two goals in the first ten minutes but to play a full 90 minutes having done nothing for eight weeks was impressive. Joey O'Brien also got off his sickbed after an ear infection.

"So I have to say that after the first 15 minutes that cost us the game, they actually rallied around very well with a lot of fight and a lot of spirit and in the end, quite a lot of hope by half-time when I thought we should have been level at 2-2.

"With the free header we had [through Papa Bouba Diop shortly after Frank Nouble's goal] we have got to make sure we bury those. You can't afford to miss them and we did. The second-half chances weren't quite as clear-cut as the first half but you expect the players we've got would have done a lot better with them. That would have got us a point, but it didn't."

You named Gary O'Neil and Frank Nouble in your starting lineup for the first time in the league this season. How did you assess their performances?

"Frank has been at Gillingham for three months so he has played three months of football, two-games-a-week and he's enjoyed his time there. I've got so many players coming back from injury with a lack of match practice but we knew Frank was match-fit. That was the reason why we threw him in.

"Like everybody else, after a slow start he started to show some good things. The goal, of course, got us back in the game and it wasn't an easy chance. He put it away brilliantly into the bottom corner after a great move."

The visit of Coventry City offers you a great opportunity to get back to winning ways on 2 January, doesn't it?

"We've got a sticky spell at the moment. We've got to watch that we haven't lost our confidence. In terms of playing again on Monday, the only good thing for us is that we've got our four suspended players back to choose from, which makes us a lot stronger as a squad. That's what we need.

"The last thing we needed last week was for three players all to get booked and all to be suspended for the same game on the back of Jack Collison's suspension. We were struggling enough with injuries.

"Now that injury and suspension record has caught up with us and cost us big, big results like Burnley, Reading and now Derby. Of course, at Birmingham we also got a draw instead of a win.

"We've got to get over this difficult period and get back to as near to full-strength as we can and start winning. We're in a situation now that it's a group of wins we need to put together. We need to win three or four or five games on the trot to make sure we boost our points tally back to where we need to be.

"We're four points behind where we want to be and to catch up those four points you need to win four games on the trot - that's how difficult it is."