West Ham United midfielder Stewart Downing has blamed a lack of patience for the team's defeat to Crystal Palace.

The Hammers saw their winless run in the Premier League extended to five games on Saturday with a 3-1 loss at Upton Park.

The result has left West Ham in ninth place in the table, four points above the bottom half of the standings.

"We went into Saturday's game off a good result at Tottenham, but I think a lot of teams are coming here and trying to frustrate us," Downing told the club's official website.

"They're getting people behind the ball and I don't think we were patient enough. We tried to force it too much, and it wasn't until they went 2-0 up that we started to penetrate.

"We got the goal back, but we left it a little too late. Hopefully it's just a blip and we don't want it to continue because we were really confident we could win the game on Saturday."

West Ham are back in action on Wednesday when they travel to leaders Chelsea in the league.