West Ham defender Abdoulaye Faye believes the supporters must get behind the team at Upton Park if they are to have an chance of automatic promotion this season

�West Ham goalscorer Abdy Faye has called on the fans to get behind the team at Upton Park as the wheels begin to fall off their promotion bandwagon.

The 34-year-old veteran nodded his first goal in claret and blue on Tuesday night, but it was not enough to beat Middlesbrough who hit back to force a 1-1 draw.

That result was met by a chorus of boos and Faye feels that is not helpful to the players.

“I think the support of the fans is no good,” said the defender. “You have to support your team when you play well and when you play no good, because it is too hard for the players.

“For me, it is okay, but for the young players it is hard to cope with the pressure.

“We have to support the team every time, it is difficult sometimes, but you just have to, so from the fans it is not good enough.”

Faye called on the supporters at Upton Park to mirror the enthusiastic support that the team are given away from home.

“In the last game against Leeds, for 95 minutes they supported the team – the crowd were amazing, but you have to do it here.

“You have to help with the team because when you go up everybody is happy, when you go down everybody is going to be disappointed, so we have to be together I think.

“We have played nine games and not lost, though maybe we don’t win, but we have to win every one now and there is big pressure now.”

Faye still believes West Ham have what it takes to win promotion this season, but he accepts that it is going to be very difficult now.

“I think we have a chance. It is only two points and we have a game in hand. In nine games we have to win them all, no draws if we want to go up to the Premier League.

“We have to be mentally strong until the end of the season.”

Tuesday’s draw was West Ham’s fifth in succession at Upton Park and manager Sam Allardyce admitted that if that continues then automatic promotion will be out of the question.

“Eventually it is going to cost us,” said the boss. “You have got to turn your draws into wins sooner or later.

“It is strange that our best undefeated run ends up not yielding the points we wanted.

“We haven’t gone this far undefeated all season, but we have drawn too many.”

West Ham did gain a point on second-placed Reading, who lost at Peterborough, but Allardyce will see the Boro draw as another missed opportunity.

He will hope to rectify that at Burnley on Saturday.