Sam Allardyce bemoans defensive woes

West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has bemoaned his side's defensive troubles in the wake of their 3-1 defeat at the hands of Newcastle United this afternoon.

The Hammers are short at the back due to a number of injuries to defensive players at the moment, meaning that Allardyce was forced to name an unfamiliar back four of Razvan Rat, James Collins, Roger Johnson and Matt Taylor for today's match.

Allardyce believes that the unsettled nature of his side's defence this season has contributed to their current league position and blamed this afternoon's defeat on a number of "lapses" in that defence.

"We have five defenders who are missing at the moment and one that should have been playing, this morning pulled out, so our back four today has never played together at all this season," PA quotes Allardyce as saying.

"When you get continuous disruption in your back four you then don't get your solid unit, and sometimes that solid unit that you would like is difficult to keep when players are not used to playing with each other, and Newcastle's players exposed that particular weakness and scored two goals.

"It's very disappointing, when you've won at Cardiff, to not get anything here, and certainly from our point of view it was more about our defensive lapses rather than the quality of Newcastle's play to score both goals, I felt. We could have done better."

The defeat leaves West Ham 18th in the Premier League table, one point adrift of safety.