Aaron Cresswell was thrilled to turn recent form on its head as West Ham United scored late to secure three points against Sunderland on Saturday.
Having conceded late against Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur to drop points not long ago, the boot was on the other foot on this occasion with Diafra Sakho scoring the only goal of the game with just two minutes left.
It meant that West Ham’s eight-game wait for a league win came to an end, at just the right time for 25-year-old defender Cresswell.
“We’re all buzzing and delighted because it was a much-needed three points after the run we’ve been on,” he explained.
“We hadn’t really been good enough lately, but we ground it out and kept going until the end. Thankfully Diafra made a great finish.
“We said at half time to keep it tight at the back, make sure they don’t score and then you’ve still got another 45 minutes. It took until the 88th minute for us to score, but you’ll take a 1-0 and a clean sheet all day.”
Sakho’s strike was his tenth league goal of a terrific debut season in England and Cresswell was delighted to see him get on the scoresheet again.
He continued: “Diafra has been fantastic all season for us. When he came in he was fairly unknown and people hadn’t heard much of him, but he’s been one of our main men scoring all those goals. Long may it continue.
“Scoring a late goal ourselves is a great feeling and the main thing was to get the three points. We needed that win and we got there in the end.
“We’ve still got eight games to go and we want to finish as high as we can – try to push for that seventh-place spot, whatever’s available we’re going to keep going every week.”
With two weeks until the Hammers’ next fixture due to the international break, the timing of the victory was even better for Cresswell.
He added: “It would have been a long two weeks if we hadn’t got the win, so now it’s going to be a good couple of weeks with a little break before our next game when we go again.
“Cheik’s had to fill in a few times over the last couple of weeks now and he’s done it again on Saturday and been fantastic.
“We got the clean sheet so what more could we ask for? We have two weeks until the next game, so it’s a chance for a few of the injured lads to get back for Leicester.”