West Ham United boss Slaven Bilic "disappointed" to miss out on sixth

West Ham United manager Slaven Bilic has admitted that he is "disappointed" by his team's failure to finish sixth in the Premier League.

The Hammers had to settle for a seventh-place position following a 2-1 defeat to Stoke City on the final day of the season this afternoon.

Bilic's side went ahead in the 23rd minute, but conceded two second-half goals to put them out of the Europa League spots.

"Basically, the most important thing today was to win no matter how and that we didn't do," Bilic told BBC Sport. "We're disappointed to lose sixth place in the last game of the season, but it was still a great season for us. It makes us proud.

"I'd like to congratulate Stoke - they took their chances. But it is hard to take this defeat. For the whole game we played much better football. You have to take 50% of your chances. I said to my players at half-time if it was basketball we would be 20 points clear.

"Despite losing, I'm happy because we played really good football and were totally dominant in a difficult game."

West Ham will play Europa League football next season if Manchester United beat Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final next weekend.