West Ham slip up to Bale show on Moore's night

"As difficult as it is to take, you've got to admire the player," said Allardyce. "He's an unbelievable player and one that Tottenham must keep hold of. He's the reason why Tottenham are winning games and not losing or drawing them.

"The difference, without any question is one man. I'm not suggesting they're a one-man team but they are in terms of the victories."

Bale opened the scoring on 13 minutes before Andy Carroll levelled from the penalty spot. After the break, Joe Cole put West Ham ahead before Matt Taylor come so close to adding a third.

With 15 minutes left Gylfi Sigurdsson equalised for Spurs, before Bale's late winner.

"I'm not disappointed in the lads' performance," said Allardyce. "I thought it was a terrific performance against one of the top sides in the country at the moment.

"We were a whisker away from getting the win, and that whisker was Matt Taylor's one-on-one when it was 2-1. If it goes to 3-1, Tottenham wouldn't have come back.

"As long as we keep this performance level up from now until to the end of the season we'll pick up enough points. I'm convinced about that. We've got to pick ourselves up and get to Stoke.

"We've only got three games now in March and we've got to get as many points out of those three games as we can."

West Ham fans held a minute's applause before kick-off to mark 20 years since Bobby Moore died.

They repeated that on six minutes, representing the legendary captain's shirt number.