"We are right in there, we have had a few new players come into the squad and starting to bed down, and it looks a lot rosier now than it did on Friday morning, that is for sure.
"It just goes to show, it has changed the face a little bit of the league table."
"He acknowledges that the game tailed off to some degree in the second half when Wigan were reduced to nine men and adds:
"The crowd we have got here is so passionate and we have to use that to our advantage; at times when you are slashing clearances and getting a bit sloppy it is going to turn on you, so it is important that we eradicate that over the remaining games - and if we do that we have a chance of going where we want to be.
"I have got to be honest, it disrupted us as much as them, but looking at the positives we pressurised them into frustration and that is when you get people sent off.
"If you look at the West Brom game, we were 3-0 up, Jermain has seen two sloppy goals go in, lost concentration, and been sent off - it shows that the pressure can tell in other factors as well as giving goals away.
"Not only have we got two goals already but then they have lost two players and it made it more comfortable for us, though it probably took a bit of the excitement away from the game which was a bit of a shame."
Alan was delighted that Marlon Harewood scored two - or three - goals on his home debut.
Officially, West Ham's records will credit the second goal on Saturday as an own goal but it certainly would not have been scored without the efforts of Marlon.
The first division does not, as in the Premiership, have a panel that sits to decide on such matters, though Marlon did get his new colleagues to sign the match ball before he took it home!
Alan says:
"I was pleased that Marlon's first home game went particularly well."