Lukasz Fabianski knows West Ham have to grasp their opportunity to climb further away from relegation trouble by beating rock-bottom Norwich on Saturday.
The Hammers missed the chance to move seven points clear of the drop zone when they slipped to a 1-0 defeat by Burnley on Wednesday night.
But their fate is still firmly in their own hands and a win at Carrow Road will make the picture look a lot brighter, while relegating the Canaries in the process.
“We realise our situation and there is no point being negative and thinking the Burnley game was just bad luck,” Hammers goalkeeper Fabianski told West Ham TV.
“When you put all the things together, we were unlucky when it came to taking some of our chances.
“There were some good moments, there were some bad moments, but we have to see Norwich as another great opportunity to get to a strong position in the table and further away from the bottom three, and that’s what we’ll try to do.”
Fabianski was beaten by Jay Rodriguez’s first-half header, while at the other end Clarets keeper Nick Pope made fine saves to deny Tomas Soucek, Andriy Yarmolenko and Sebastien Haller.
“Obviously we had our chances and we didn’t take them, which was one issue, and in some cases we were maybe a bit rushed with all our decisions,” added Fabianski.
“All the teams in this position have in the back of their minds about getting away from the relegation zone and every single game feels like an FA Cup final.
“That is always somewhere there in your mind, so you have to remain calmer in those situations and believe in your abilities, in your game plan and stay cool in tricky moments.”
Pope’s performance stood out for Clarets manager Sean Dyche, especially the saves with his feet from Soucek and Haller.
He said: “A few people mentioned to me that Nick is unorthodox, but do you know the best bit? He keeps the ball out of the net.
“There’s no perfect way of doing that, but he finds a way, backed by a team in front of him who are committed and give their all.
“We ask a lot of our players and if all that fails, we have a top goalkeeper who wants to keep it out of the net.”
