West Ham manager Sam Allardyce praised his side's tactics after they climbed to second in the Championship with a 1-0 win at Brighton tonight.

Kevin Nolan scored the only goal of the game after Seagulls midfielder Leon Bridcutt lost possession in front of his own penalty area.

"Tactically we were excellent tonight," said Allardyce. "We sussed out that in the early stages we would press them from the front and hopefully force them into an error."

Allardyce also applauded his defence for restricting the home side to a limited number of chances.

"Looking back at the game there isn't a clear-cut chance apart from Mani's (Manuel Almunia) save in the first-half. Our defensive play was very very good and frustrated them an awful lot."

West Ham next host Leicester, who sacked manager Sven-Goran Eriksson earlier today, at Upton Park on Saturday.