Thomas Hitzlsperger confident West Ham will beat Wigan next weekend and stay up

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After equalising for West Ham in their 1-1 draw at home to Blackburn Rovers, Thomas Hitzlsperger has told his side to go and win their last two matches of the season.

The late goal has given the Hammers a slight chance of staying in the Premier League, but they are bottom and could be five points fom safety depending on Blackpool’s result at Spurs this evening.

Hitzlsperger, though, after West Ham’s recent performances, is still confident they can survive, although he was disappointed not to get all three points against fellow strugglers Blackburn.

After the match he told reporters: “I think we worked hard today, we were very unfortunate because we created many chances but we’ve only scored one goal, a silly goal we gave away in the first-half, so we were very unlucky not to win the game, but that’s it, we’ve lost the previous five games and we came here today to win which we didn’t, but we’re still in it, we can still stay in the league.”

When asked about his goal, he admitted: “I was very pleased, I must say, because that’s what we needed today.

“We couldn’t afford to lose that game and we were just pushing on, pushing on and when that goal went in I was so happy on a personal note and also for the team of course and I thought after that one we could still push on and score the winner, which we didn’t.

“But I think we can go to Wigan and believing that the way we were playing today, and in recent weeks, we’ve played some good football but we didn’t win and next week we should win and we will.”

West Ham had late chances to win the match, but Robbie Keane missed a great opportunity before Carlton Cole saw his effort blocked by Christopher Samba.

Hitzlsperger said he thought both attempts were going to be goals:  “You’ve got to ask them really to explain their emotions. I was looking from behind and I just thought this is the one, this is where we’re going to score and win the game and unfortunately it didn’t happen.

“But as I said we created many chances and we’re a bit unlucky today, but we shouldn’t feel sorry for ourselves, just go up to Wigan next Sunday and win.”

Having lost their last five matches, this point stopped the rot for West Ham, but their away form has been poor all season and German midfielder acknowledged this fact, but refused to let it dampen his confidence.

He added: “I don’t think we’ve done too well away from home, but still we go there believing that we can win it because Wigan they’re under pressure, they have to win like us so the pressure’s on both teams and it’s a massive game for both teams.

“We definitely believe in surviving because the last two games they are both winnable games.

“We’ve got the really good teams out of the way, now we play two teams struggling like us and I think we’ve got the advantage.

“We’re a good team, we believe in ourselves and we’ll go up there to win.”