For me, football is like life. When the chance comes you have to grab the moment, and on Wednesday night against Tottenham that is what we had to do — and we did it. We didn’t let the game pass us by.
As comebacks go it was up there with the best I can remember, but we did something similar in my first season at West Ham when we played Everton at Goodison Park.
I don’t know if the fans can remember this but we were losing 2-0 and then Everton were awarded a penalty to make it three.
Romelu Lukaku missed the spot-kick, though, and okay, Kevin Mirallas received two yellows and was sent off, but even when it was 2-0 to them, I can remember thinking there is still hope here.
It was the same against Spurs the other night. I admit that, if we conceded a third goal it would have been a catastrophe but even at half-time, although we were not happy, I had that feeling that all we needed was a little bit of quality, because we had the space and we had the possession.
It was the same in that game at Everton, we just weren’t good enough in the final third of the pitch.
This was Spurs, however, this was Wembley, and so Wednesday night was even more unexpected, especially if you take everything into account — the defeat against Brighton, my position and the fact they had been unbeaten for 11 games.
What gave me that feeling of hope? I could see us passing the ball through the middle, I saw confidence on the ball even though we were very bad when we came into the danger area, especially the lack of movement. But we were getting there and that’s why we just needed that one goal to give us energy, and also the feeling that we could hurt them — and that’s exactly what happened.
Probably Spurs thought they had the game won and were thinking a little about the weekend — and Real Madrid next week. When you lose that momentum and rhythm, you can try twice as hard but never get it back. It doesn’t happen any more — that train has left the station.
Okay, I would accept that Spurs lost a little focus, but I wouldn’t want that to detract from our performance.
I was surprised that Spurs put out such a strong team but it was because it was West Ham. We also had a good side out and I wanted to give some players a chance, because they did well in the previous round against Bolton.
The result and our second-half performance have given me what I call a ‘positive’ headache. Nobody who played in the cup tie was injured, so we are going to monitor the players carefully before we decide on our team to play Crystal Palace tomorrow.
It is a different game in prospect but what we must have is the same attitude, the same concentration and the same spirit.
We went to three at the back against Spurs and it worked. It is a system which I like and one which we first employed in my first season — again when we played Spurs. It can be very effective against some teams, especially against those who push their full-backs up and have the wingers in the pockets.
We can play that way and have done in four games this season. Sometimes when you have to press and put teams under pressure you are missing one player in that zone.
When your team is confident it can be very offensive because your wingbacks are up. If confidence is low, though, you are not playing with three at the back — but five.
So it is not so much about the system but the confidence and quality you have.
I was very pleased for Andre Ayew on Wednesday night. Most of the goals he has scored for us have been like the pair he scored at Wembley. It’s not luck, he thinks about it and can find that precious space in a crowded box. He worked very hard also in the second half, as did Andy Carroll.
I have said to the players that, in every game or training session, they finish with a plus or a minus, and Andre was definitely a big plus on Wednesday.
The one thing we cannot do is allow ourselves to think, ‘Now we’re good, let’s take it easy in training’ and the wins are going to come by default.
Tomorrow, at Palace, could be a Premier League classic in a traditional way, good crowd, big game, small pitch.
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