WEST HAM striker Benni McCarthy has admitted that the team are at rock bottom after their embarrassing 3-1 defeat by Wolves on Tuesday night, writes DAVE EVANS. The team had to endure calls that they were not fit to wear the shirt , as well a cacophony

WEST HAM striker Benni McCarthy has admitted that the team are at 'rock bottom' after their embarrassing 3-1 defeat by Wolves on Tuesday night, writes DAVE EVANS.

The team had to endure calls that they were 'not fit to wear the shirt', as well a cacophony of boos from those fans still in the ground at the end, and the former Blackburn man admitted it was a very tough experience to go through.

"It hurts very much," said the 32-year-old centre forward, who made his first appearance at Upton Park for the Hammers in this game.

"It's painful and it's really hard to try and get back, but we're all professionals and we should have known better. We should have shown our character and changed the fans' minds.

"We should have given them 110 or 120 per cent, but unfortunately we didn't do that. I don't know what happened. At first it seemed like it was going all right until they got a lucky goal - it was just an error from us.

"Then everyone seemed to lose their heads a little bit and then the heads dropped and when the fans started showing their frustrations it made things even worse on the pitch."

McCarthy's partnership with Carlton Cole up front hardly got off the ground, with neither player looking 100 per cent fit, but for the striker, it is about the whole team rather than individuals.

"We've reached rock bottom, much lower than this we can't get," said the South African international. "You play a home game you had to win, and especially against Wolves.

"No disrespect to Wolves, they came out and did their bit, but you lose against them and you think, 'where does it go from here?' That's why this is rock bottom for us."

The doom and gloom pervaded from the whole team after this dismal showing, but at least McCarthy is trying to look towards the positive, and that means doing better in the next game against Stoke City.

"It couldn't get any worse," he admitted.

"What we take from this game is we learned our lesson hopefully and no-one in that dressing room ever wants to be walking off the pitch and hear what went on in the stands.

"The best way for us to forget all that is on Saturday to get on that pitch and play like we've never played before.

"Hopefully the fans will appreciate that and we'll get the three points.

"Then we'll start getting them on our side again because in this difficult situation the fans are the most important."

Many fans, and perhaps the players themselves expected to beat Wolves on Tuesday, especially after being far from disgraced against the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal lately, but McCarthy feels that every team is a potential threat.

"You can't say, it is Chelsea, or Arsenal or Liverpool or Manchester United," he said. "Even Wolves can give you as tough a game as the big teams, so we've got to pull our socks up if we're going to stay up.

"We have got to compete against what we were up against with Wolves.

"Now we've got to look on the bright side," he said.

"There's 21 points left and if you do the maths, 10 points will probably see us there.