Nuno Espirito Santo admitted he thought West Ham had three points in the bag when the ball fell to Jarrod Bowen in the dying seconds against Bournemouth.
The Hammers had already had 19 attempts at goal when, deep into stoppage time, Crysencio Summerville burst forward yet again and played in Bowen.
The West Ham skipper was just the player Nuno would have wanted in that situation, 12 yards out with the goal at his mercy.
But Bowen blazed his shot over the crossbar, the match finished goalless and Nuno was left to reflect on missing a glorious chance to give their survival hopes a huge shot in the arm.
“I was praying for that,” said the Hammers boss. “What I was thinking, I was seeing three points and happy days.”
The 18th-placed Hammers could have seriously put the frighteners on the teams above them, as a victory would have put them level on points with Nottingham Forest and two behind Tottenham, both of whom have tough games on Sunday.
Instead matches are beginning to run out, but Nuno added: “We have to look at the game. I think we started really, really well with the chances that we created and we are starting almost every match really well.
“Eventually, scoring changes the dynamic. That was the purpose, that was the intention. But overall, not only in the beginning of the game, until the end of the game, we were close.
“We were really close. And that is the feeling of sadness that is with us that we felt that it’s almost there for us to take, and we didn’t take it.
“But at the same time, we performed well, we were solid. We didn’t allow too many situations. What can we say about the players? They did it all. They gave it all. The team ran to the end.”
The Cherries left east London having stretched their unbeaten run to seven matches.
But they could have got even more had Brazilian teenage sensation Rayan’s second-half run and shot not clipped the woodwork.
“A good point for us,” said boss Andoni Iraola.
“I didn’t like our performance in the first half, the second half was much better. The game we wanted to play was more like the second half.
“In the first half we did not look threatening. We started slow. We knew they are in need of wins and would start strong.
“We were not winning our duels, the offensive players were not playing well. Second half we looked a lot more dangerous.
“I value this point. This is not an easy place to come and they are on a good run like us. It hasn’t been our best game in this run but away from home in this situation it’s a good point for us.”
