WEMBLEY – West Ham manager Sam Allardyce said winning promotion was one of the greatest achievements of his career.Allardyce made good on his promise to take the Hammers back into the top flight with a 2-1 win over Blackpool in the play-off final at Wembley.The Hammers missed out on automatic promotion by two points while Allardyce was criticised over the playing style.“It is great, right up there with the best for me because of the size of West Ham and the pressures,” he said.“You get critics everywhere, a small minority who make themselves heard at every club, but the vast majority have been behind the team.“It would have been devastating, according to the owners who would have had to decimate the wage bill by £10m, off-load players for little or no fee and still achieve what fans want.”Allardyce admitted he was thrilled to be back in the Premier League where he has spent more than a decade as the manager of Bolton, Newcastle and Blackburn.“I’m just delighted to be back in the Premier League. It means everything to me,” he said.“I had been in the Premier League for 10 years or so. It was difficult at the start to turn this club around but we have come good at the end.
