Avram Grant gets his point across with a half-time broadside that sparks Hammers rally

Victor Obinna revealed today how a half-time rollicking from Avram Grant inspired West Ham to fight back for a point at Wolves.

The Hammers fell behind to a Matt Jarvis volley after 10 minutes and only a couple of fine saves from Robert Green stopped the deficit being even bigger.

Grant left his men in no doubt how disappointed he was with their listless display and that shook them into action after the break.

Mark Noble equalised in the 53rd minute with a penalty awarded after a foul on Obinna and the Nigerian went close to getting a winner as did Frederic Piquionne.

Obinna said: "The manager was really mad at us for the first half because he knows what we're capable of doing, the kind of team we are and the quality in the team. He was upset with the way we played in the first half and told us a few words and said, You know you are better than this. Go out and prove yourselves and win this game'.

"He was not really, really angry — he was upset. I think he was justified. Wolves were the better side in the first half.

"Their fans were also pushing them to do well and mostly the first half was not that good for us. We tried to play our football but their goalkeeper was kicking lots of long balls and their midfielders were taking the second balls. It wasn't the game we wanted to play.

"In the second half, we changed the play and the way we wanted to play. We switched from 4-4-2 to 4‑3‑3 and you saw how the game changed."

Obinna put the team's slow start down to last week's international matches, which meant that a number of players did not return to training until two days before the game.

"It's pretty difficult for the coach to prepare for a game like this when you don't have a full team until Thursday," he said.

"We came back with the spirit. We know how to play football. We moved the ball around and we dominated virtually the whole second half and tried to play the sort of football that we want to play."

Hammers fans thought Piquionne had given their side victory in added time but referee Mark Clattenburg judged the striker had handled the ball before slotting it past Marcus Hahnemann.

Obinna was convinced it was the wrong decision and said: "It was a clean, clean goal. I don't know what the referee was thinking."