Hislop wishes 'brave' Green well

West Ham keeper Shaka Hislop had words of sympathy for both men involved in the late collision that saw his opposite number Robert Green stretchered off and taken to hospital.

The Trinidad and Tobago international's first thoughts were for the stricken Norwich City star, who took a nasty blow on the head as he went for a cross with Hammers' striker Marlon Harewood.

But he also felt for his own colleague, who was constantly jeered by the home fans after what appeared to be an accidental collision - and was left shaken by the incident afterwards.

“As a member of the goalkeeper's union I know exactly how dangerous the position can be at times,” said Hislop. “Robert Green has proved himself to be very brave in those situations, as well as a fantastic goalkeeper, and I can only wish him a speedy recovery.

"I am sure he will be diving in head first again the next time as well though because that's the sort of goalkeeper he is. I think he is a fantastic talent.”

Turning to Harewood's involvement in the late drama, Hislop added: “Marlon doesn't have a malicious bone in his body and after the game he went straight into the treatment room to see Robert and wish him well.

“It was just one of those things and Marlon was very upset about it afterwards. But he was just going for the ball.”

Manager Alan Pardew echoed the words of his veteran keeper after the game.

“I don't think you can blame Marlon at all,” he said. “He is an honest player and was just going for a 50/50 ball. Some of the Norwich fans didn't like it but I think that was a result of their frustration at the score-line more than anything else.

“All I can do now is wish Greeny a speedy recovery. He is a good keeper and a good lad and hopefully he'll be back in action soon.”

Pardew was delighted with a result which ended a run of three straight defeats in the Premiership.

"Having a good cup run and getting back up there in the league is a realistic target for us,” said the Hammers boss.

"Although our quality was not as great as it could have been, our work rate was tremendous and made it difficult for Norwich.

"After the second goal it looked like it was going to be a comfortable afternoon - but we don't do things comfortably at West Ham.

"We gifted them a goal and then there was a spell of about 10 minutes which we had to see out.

"Norwich were a bit short today, but we still had to do a job, and I thought we did that well.”

The big talking point after the game from a Norwich point of view was the shock absence of top scorer Dean Ashton with a groin injury - and Hislop for one wasn't complaining when he realised the opposition's main danger man would be on the sidelines.,

"I was delighted to see that Dean Ashton's name was not on the Norwich team sheet,” he said. “It certainly made the game a lot easier for us and personally I breathed a big sigh of relief before the kick off when I saw he was not playing. It certainly made my job easier!"