Clarke: Pressure on Green

Steve Clarke believes Robert Green needs to play "the game of his life" this weekend after the goalkeeper's blunder against Bolton led to a defeat that leaves West Ham second bottom of the Barclays Premier League.

With the game balanced at 1-1, Green inexplicably dropped Gary Cahill's bouncing effort in the 77th minute, allowing Ivan Klasnic to finish with ease. The error proved crucial for the Hammers, who eventually went down 3-1 at the Reebok Stadium and are now 19th, two points adrift of Bolton and Wolves.

"We just got back in the game, it looked as if we were in control and Rob has unfortunately made a mistake and it is something that we couldn't come back from," said assistant manager Clarke.

"Football is all about mistakes. He has made a mistake but he is a man and he'll deal with it.

"He'll recover and the best thing he can do is go out on Sunday and have the game of his life. That is what he has to do - he has to respond."

Clarke insisted the players are under no illusions about their current plight but is confident they will soon turn the corner.

"The feeling in the dressing room is that we know we are in a bad position," said Clarke.

"We know we haven't got enough points. The quicker we can get a win the better - but we don't just need one win, we need three, four, five wins.

"We are not stupid. We understand the situation and we are working as hard as we can to rectify it.

"At the moment it's not easy but we have confidence in the players, in ourselves and we are sure we can get out of the bottom three."