SAM Allardyce is aiming to put the accent on attack next season.

The Wanderers' boss gave the first clear indication of how he hopes to approach his second Premiership campaign after the final whistle sounded at Upton Park on Saturday.

The result was of no consequence but he was at least able to use the events at West Ham to illustrate how he expects Wanderers to improve as a top flight force.

He blamed dozy defending for the goals in the closing minutes of each half that led to the season's final fixture ending in a 2-1 defeat. But he made it clear wants his team to make more of an attacking impact next time round.

"We want to improve on what we've got," the manager said as he turned his thoughts to his summer recruitment drive, "because we've had to defend for long spells and we don't really want to have to do that much defending through every game throughout the season, if we can help it.

"We want to be an attacking force as well as a good defensive unit."

Apart from the mild rebuke of his players for "going to sleep" on the two goals and expressing his disappointment at not ending the season with a draw, Allardyce was not in the least perturbed by the defeat. He did not have the services of the injured Bruno N'Gotty, Paul Warhurst, Mike Whitlow and Ricardo Gardner, who have all been key members of his team when fit, and had the luxury of being able to tinker with his team, knowing there was nothing at stake.

He accommodated Denmark coach Morten Olsen by giving Stig Tofting a first half runout to prove his fitness for World Cup duty after a seven-match lay-off with a foot injury and gave Jeff Smith, the former Bishop Auckland postman, his first taste of Premiership action in a half hour stint at left back.

"It was nice to play an open, entertaining game against West Ham because neither of us was under any pressure," he explained.

"It was disappointing not to get the point when we were only minutes away from seeing the game out. The best part of our game was the first half an hour when we passed the ball around very well but we went to sleep just before half time to go 1-0 down and again at the end when they scored from a corner.

"We had to do some solid, sometimes desperate defending in the second half because of the fluency of West Ham but I was pleased overall with the performance and Youri (Djorkaeff) showed his quality at set-plays again with the free kick. It took a little deflection but he really does threaten in those areas.

"There wasn't that much for us to play for, other than to get a result to show what we are capable of in the Premiership but it was really nice to see Jeff Smith getting on, just to test him. He knows what it's all about now. They (West Ham) threw Trevor Sinclair onto him because they knew he was a young lad and it was a testing time for him. But it was good to give him half an hour.

"Stig Tofting came through fine. It's been about three months since he played and I only put him on for the first 45 minutes to give him some match practice for his benefit and for Morten Olsen. He can go off now and enjoy the World Cup.

"But by far the most important thing for us on Saturday was travelling to Upton Park, where West Ham have a fantastic home record, knowing we could enjoy ourselves and not be biting our fingernails because we needed points.

"We were able to relax and enjoy our football, which hasn't happened that often."