MATTHEW Upson insists West Ham are not worried about being relegated despite seeing their latest attempt to move off the bottom of the table end in failure.

An early opener for Carlton Cole gave the long-suffering home fans some hope of moving off the bottom of the table before Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll both scored to inflict a 2-1 defeat – West Ham’s first loss since September 11.

Avram Grant’s side are now three points adrift of safety and face tough matches at Arsenal and Birmingham, but Hammers skipper Upson is confident they will start grinding out the victories which will guide them to safety.

‘‘We’re not hitting the panic button,’’ Upson said. ‘‘People can get carried away with our performances and our position but before this game we went on a five-match unbeaten run.

We weren’t on a drastically bad run. We just need to turn a few draws into wins.’’ The Hammers dominated the opening exchanges but failed to maintain their grip on the game after Cole tapped in Frederic Piquionne’s cross to open the scoring after 12 minutes.

The defeat – West Ham’s fifth of the season – was greeted with vociferous boos by the home fans, some of whom were calling for the manager’s head at the final whistle.

Upson admitted he was disappointed not to deliver the victory which the home support craved so much.

‘‘We massively wanted to win,’’ said the England centrehalf.

‘ ‘We want to give our supporters something that is worth turning up for and maybe in the second half we didn’t achieve that. We looked dangerous in the first half but we just fell away. We have to analyse that and find out why.’’ Grant’s position as Hammers boss has been under question despite the club’s good form prior to yesterday’s defeat.

Co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan have both given Grant their backing and the Israeli is confident that he will be able to get his side back to winning ways soon – and is even confident of getting something from next week’s game at the Emirates Stadium.

‘‘There are no easy games in football and away games are tough but anything can happen,’’ Grant said. ‘‘Maybe Arsenal away will be the toughest game of the season but we will try to do our best there.’’ One of the few plus points to come from yesterday’s game was Cole’s first goal of the season which came after he was handed his first start in a month.