Goalscorer Guy Demel believes West Ham United had plenty to be proud of, despite losing out to the odd goal in three against Liverpool in the Barclays Premier League on Sunday.
Demel's first goal since August 2009 in first-half stoppage time cancelled out the first of Steven Gerrard's two penalties, but there would be no reply to his second spot-kick with 71 minutes on the clock.
Though the Hammers' valiant display against the leaders failed to produce any points, Demel was still buoyed by a performance that pushed Brendan Rodgers' men right to the wire.
READ BIG SAM'S TAKE ON SUNDAY'S NARROW DEFEAT
"I think we played really well as a team and we were a bit unlucky at the end," he told West Ham TV. "I think it's the type of performance that we have to keep on [producing]. At the beginning of the season we played good football and kept losing games and Sunday was kind of the same, because I think we played really well.
"I've never seen Liverpool being such in a tough position, they lost so many balls because we put pressure on them and we had chances as well. But again, that's football, on Sunday we were pretty unlucky with the referee's decisions, but we have to move on.
"It would have been really nice for us to get a point against Liverpool, after the last two wins, to keep the positive atmosphere going. I mean we're disappointed but we played against probably the champions, or they will be near, so when you have that type of performance you just have to be proud and make sure you will be able to keep doing the same for the next game."
As for the Ivorian's goalscoring pedigree, the 32-year-old was thrilled to have finally opened his West Ham account, not least to get his colleagues off his back! And having not hit the back of the net for almost five years, he was certainly thankful for the tap-in.
He continued: "It was kind of a controversial goal and I wasn't sure if the referee would give us the goal or not. But I'm pretty happy because, to be honest, the guys were on my case all the time, 'you never score, you never score,' so now it's done. One or two more would be great, but my first job is to defend and try to do my best for the team.
"I was hoping it would be a tap in and it was! I said I need a really easy goal and I'm really happy with that."
His goal aside, Demel believes there is many a positive to be taken from Sunday and hopes the Hammers can continue in a similar vein against his once employers Arsenal next Tuesday. The Ivorian insists Sunday's fluent display owes much to the Hammers' comfortable mid-table position and thinks supporters have much to look forward to before the season is out.
"We have momentum," he added. "The last two games were really important for us, so now I think, mentally, we're still focused, but we're playing with less pressure and you can see, when there's less pressure on our shoulders, how we keep the ball and play.
"I still have some friends playing for Arsenal and it's going to be a tough game again. Like I said, we're going to try to get a point, because our objective is to finish tenth, it was our objective before the season. For that we have to get a point, even against the big teams.
"It won't be easy to play Arsenal now. But it's the Premier League, I've never played an easy game, it's going to be tough, of course, we're playing against the big boys, but right now we find ourselves in a good spot, on a good path and we're going to try to do our best. Keep working hard and to get points somewhere."