Balbuena: We've felt your support all season


Fabian Balbuena hailed the West Ham United supporters after saying how pleased he was that the team gave them an afternoon to celebrate on Saturday.

The Hammers ended their home fixtures for the campaign with a 3-0 win against Southampton, completing a double over the Saints and keeping them in the hunt for a top half finish.

It was a second successive victory for Manuel Pellegrini's side, having beaten Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, and Balbuena now wants to finish by making it a hat-trick at Watford.

Watch highlights of Saturday's win here

"It was a fantastic way to end the season at home," he said. "Always, to win is important, but in the last game at home it’s beautiful to give that emotion to the fans so we’re very happy with Saturday.

"The fans have always been with us, when we’ve lost games, when we’ve drawn and when we’ve won. They’re always there supporting us and we’ve felt that all season so we’re grateful."

Marko Arnautovic's double against the Saints ended his eleven-game wait for a goal, so Balbuena was delighted to see his teammate back amongst it, as well as with the clean sheet at the other end.

He added: "It’s great for Marko. We know he always wants to score [and he’s had a run without one], so we were so happy with this game because all the lads kept working to try and score the goal, and Marko and Ryan deserve it because their performance was very good.

"And as a defender, you always try to keep a clean sheet. We work on it every day in training, to be focused, concentrated and not allow them the space so we are happy to keep that clean sheet."