Jermain Defoe marked his first return to a former stomping ground with a superb drive beyond Shaka Hislop after Michael Carrick had picked him out.
Paul Robinson then did brilliantly to keep the scores level before Teddy Sheringham, the string-puller in chief throughout the game, stepped up to take a spot-kick which Robbo saved. A little bit of luck we hoped would go a long way.
But at 2-1 down, defending became an afterthought as the boys piled forward in search of saving the game but one goal, let alone two, proved too high a mountain to climb.
Stephen Kelly was drafted into the starting line-up for injured Paul Stalteri. Edgar Davids returned from suspension so Danny Murphy dropped to the bench, and Tom Huddlestone was omitted from the 16.
Tottenham ended the campaign two points below Arsenal who won their last ever game at Highbury, 4-2 against Wigan. Spurs finished with 65 points, two clear of sixth placed Blackburn Rovers.
Martin Jol: "In the end it was disappointing but I'm still proud of them because there were heroes out there. For example, Michael Dawson gave everything. It wasn't our best game but under the circumstances we tried our best and showed some resilience but well done to West Ham, they played well."
Jol on the bout of food poisoning, which affected the squad: "We were disrupted because we had nine or 10 players feeling sick in bed. The trouble was that we had some players in the line-up like Carrick and Dawson who were ill. Michael Carrick couldn't go on (to the end of the game). Michael Dawson was very sick, I can tell you but he still played 90 minutes. The substitute was Calum Davenport, who was ill too and then Tom Huddlestone could have come in but he was ill as well. Robbie Keane twisted his ankle last week and I thought of playing Lee Barnard but in the end I had to play Robbie. So we had problems. We went out for the warm-up and our fans were great and that made the lads feel a bit stronger but they needed fluids and food - a couple of the guys hadn't eaten since Saturday. So it was a strange situation. In the team meeting everyone said 'gaffer, we want to go over there and we want to play' and that they would try the warm-up and if that went okay, they would play. They came back into the dressing room (after the warm-up) and we made the decision to play."
Michael Carrick: "It was devastating, the dressing room was in silence and it is so hard to take on the last day, but it just wasn't to be, a number of things went against us. We were focused on the game and tried to do our best. It was our biggest game of the season and without the preparation we didn't play well enough. We weren't playing well but we found ourselves drawing at half-time and thought we still could have nicked it. It was a tough game and they played at a very high tempo, it was hot and they caused us a few problems."
"I'm not taking anything away from them, credit to West Ham and to Arsenal, who pipped us (into fourth place), but it was hard for us today. About ten of the boys were up through the night being sick so it was not good preparation, obviously, and I had to come off myself because I was gone, exhausted and didn't have any energy. I signalled to the bench that I couldn't carry on. It showed how it affected us."
Edgar Davids: "We hoped to finish fourth and qualify for the Champions League, but we didn't play well enough to win and you saw the situation we had to play in. We fought until the bitter end but couldn't get a good result. We had to dig in and work hard, but they played a bit better than we did. We wanted to play, but the majority of the team was sick and everybody was affected by it. It was a pity that it had to be on that day. Everybody was disappointed with how it ended but it was a positive thing that we were targeting the Champions League."
Alan Pardew (WHUFC): "You have to give credit to Spurs because they were not at full strength or ability and you could see that one or two were struggling. It was their biggest day of the season but it was difficult for Spurs, with their problems and, unfortunately, the Champions League place went against them."Source: Official sites