West Ham United manager Sam Allardyce has said that he is confident of getting automatic promotion this season even though his side dropped yet more points in the Championship.

West Ham United at one of the favourites to qualify for the automatic promotion spots, but at the last few weeks has witnessed a major turnover in the fortunes of the club.

In the last five matches, West Ham have won just one match, which has pushed them into the third position in the table. This will guarantee them only play-off position, which is not good enough for the ambitions of Sam Allardyce. However, the former Bolton manager said that he is still confident of achieving automatic promotion with West Ham. The latest Championship odds make West Ham slim favourites to recover their second spot.

Southampton continue to lead the Championship, while Reading have overtaken West Ham to the second spot. West Ham were trailing against Leeds United in their most recent match, with a goal from Danny Collins the only saviour for Allardyce and his men.

Allardyce said after the match that it was extremely unfortunate that Leeds United took the lead just when West Ham were attacking with a lot of intent. Once Leeds had taken the lead, Allardyce said that it was extremely difficult to claw back the advantage.

“It’s not a slip-up for me. It’s a slip-up in the home games against Palace, Watford and Doncaster. That’s been the crux of our slip-up. We are eight undefeated, but there have been too many draws. When Leeds scored we were in our best spell of attacking. It was unfortunate that we slipped up,” Allardyce said after the match.

West Ham will be facing the likes of Burnley and Reading in their next few matches, with the only consolation now being that they have played a game less than their title rivals.