Allardyce: Lansbury and Bentley give us quality strength and depth

West Ham manager Sam Allardyce believes the additions of Henri Lansbury and David Bentley to his squad will give them the quality and strength they need to mount a promotion push.

The Hammers defeated Portsmouth 4-3 at Upton Park in a tasty affair which saw a player sent off for either side.

And Allardyce was delighted with the stand out performance by Lansbury, on-loan from Arsenal and Bentley’s 30 minute cameo.

He said: “I think it just gives us another direction from an attacking point of view and quality counts and [Lansbury] certainly showed some good qualities today and on today’s performance he has set the bar high hasn’t he!

“I’ll be kicking him up the backside saying, ‘if you don’t perform to that level now, I’m going to be on your back son’.

“And David Bentley was quality when he came on as well and that’s going to be important to us, being able to change when we need to, being able to rotate when we need to, being able to change personnel and systems whenever the need be.”

Allardyce was also happy to remind he detractors that the Hammers are in sensational scoring form, scoring after hitting 15 goals in six games.

He added: “Not to forget we’ve scored four goals at Watford, four goals at Forest and four goals here today, so we are an attacking force, for all those who keep moaning that we only play one up front, we don’t.”