Sam Allardyce has described West Ham United’s play-off triumph as the pinnacle of his career after he guided the Irons back to the Premier League.

The Hammers boss secured his third promotion as a manager, following success at Notts County and Bolton Wanderers, but believes his latest achievement is a better one because of the pressure and expectation on his shoulders at Upton Park.

Allardyce, who achieved his target of taking West Ham up in his first season at the club, said: “It’s right up there with the best for me [achievements] and it’s probably bettered the Millennium Stadium victory with Bolton because it’s West Ham United with the size and pressure of the football club and also because it’s at Wembley. What a fantastic arena and it’s the first time I’ve come here and won. I haven’t been here very often but at least I’ve won here this time.

“You get criticised everywhere in this game, there’s no doubt about that. That’s only a small minority but they do make themselves heard, don’t they?

“I know the vast majority of our fans have been behind us because we’ve been winning games of football. At the end of the day we’ve lost one game in 2012 out of 21 matches. If you can’t celebrate that as a good season then I don’t know what is?

“Overall we’ve only lost eight in 49 matches so it’s been a thrilling and outstanding season by the players based on where we started from and where we ended up.”

Although attention has started to turn towards the challenge of keeping the Irons in the top flight next season, ‘Big Sam’ was more interested in soaking up the atmosphere from their Wembley triumph and recovering from the sheer exhaustion of the campaign. The former Newcastle United manager said: “I’m going to relax and enjoy this victory with the players and not think about what lies ahead just yet. I want to make sure this sinks in because it’s a memory for life for everybody concerned with West Ham.

“Winning at Wembley in the play-off final is not what you want to do because you want to go up automatically. You want to go and win it if you finish fourth, fifth or sixth but not if you finish third. But if you do and then win it, it’s a memory for the fans and everybody concerned for years and years.

“You’ve got all the pictures, DVDs and celebrations from winning it this way and the trophy and medals.

“It’s just an outstanding achievement because it’s bigger than anything else played here because this is about everything that’s happened over ten months, not six or seven games to get to a cup final.

“It means an awful lot. It means we’ve now not got to face the huge problem that the Fair Play League, if it gets voted in, would have devestated us if we hadn’t gone up.

“I don’t agree with it because according to the owners, we would have had to decimate our wage bill by £10m which means we would have had to offload players for little or no fee and still try to achieve what the West Ham fans want which is promotion.

“I’ve got a tough task keeping West Ham in the Premier League but I’ve shown at Bolton that we did it from virtually nothing and we managed to stay there for a long time. I’ve got to try and do that sustainable and steady growth for West Ham next season.”

Allardyce has come under pressure this season and been criticised by his own supporters at times for their style of play.

The experienced manager is used to receiving negative media reaction but he insists his record at previous clubs and at West Ham this year deserves recognition.

The Irons boss said: “I think there are times when people consider you to be at the top of your industry. I think the time that happened was the heights I took Bolton to.

“I don’t forget that when I left Bolton there were two games left in the Premier League and where do you think they were? The answer to that was fifth in the Premier League and it was the fourth or fifth season we finished eighth or better on the trot.

“Having had to suffer two sackings, that were harsh to say the least. It damaged my reputation and people don’t consider me to be as good as I was then.

“That is my feeling, whether it is right or wrong. That’s how it looks to me but at the end of the day I’m still achieving great things at the football clubs I work at.

“I don’t like seeing Blackburn and Bolton going down and I didn’t like seeing Newcastle go down but they’ve all been relegated since I managed them. So I must have done alright when I was there.”