SAM Allardyce vowed to take West Ham up via the play-offs after they missed out on automatic promotion back to the Barclays Premier League.

Southampton’s win over Coventry ensured the south-coast side held onto second spot and followed Reading into the top flight despite the Hammers beating Hull 2-1.

Instead Allardyce’s men will have to do it the hard way, starting with two legs against Cardiff, if they are to secure promotion.

Allardyce said: “I stuck my neck out when I arrived and said we wanted promotion in the first season.

“I’ve got a two-year contract but doing it in the first season is important. We still have three games to win, and we will do it.

“We’ve had a very good season considering where we’ve come from. In the last few years 86 points has been enough. Our ultimate goal was not achieved, we left ourselves too much to do, but we’ll wake up tomorrow morning and look forward to preparing for the play-offs.

“We have to lick our wounds, get over our disappointment and get ready for the vital games ahead of us.”

It is West Ham’s home form which has proved costly – they won a club record 13 games on the road but dropped 28 points on their own turf to slip out of the top two. An early goal may have set the nerves jangling down at St Mary’s, and they should have grabbed one in the fourth minute only for Ricardo Vaz Te to somehow head wide from all of three yards out.

And any scrap of pre-match optimism around Upton Park quickly evaporated as the news Saints were making short work of the Sky Blues filtered through.

Nevertheless, goals either side of half-time from Carlton Cole should at least send West Ham into the play-offs in good heart.

The striker headed in Mark Noble’s 35th-minute corner to open the scoring and tucked away Henri Lansbury’s cross for the second three minutes after the break.

Hull pulled one back through Corry Evans, who took advantage of Guy Demel’s poor header to nod the ball past Rob Green.

And the visitors thought they had equalised when Richard Garcia powered in a late header only to be flagged offside.

The Tigers’ own play-off hopes ended a few weeks ago but manager Nicky Barmby feels they can go one better next season.

“There’s a bit of frustration,” admitted the former England international. “I genuinely believed we could make the play-offs.

“But the players are growing and we’ll be better for it next season.”