Tom Huddlestone can win England recall, says Hull manager Steve Bruce Huddlestone has long needed a team to be built around his strengths. Previously at Tottenham Hotspur - a club with Champions League aspirations - it was not quite worth the risk. Steve Bruce, who convinced Huddlestone over a cup of tea in a London hotel that Hull, despite "probably being unfashionable," would be the ideal place to progress his career, believes his new signing can force his way back into Roy Hodgson's England squad if he continues like this. "It's scary how good he is," Bruce insisted. If there's a better passer of the ball ... I don't think there can be. He has great players ahead of him: the Gerrards and Lampards of this world and the Wilsheres. But there's no reason playing week in, week out and performing like he has been doing, why he can't. West Ham manager Sam Allardyce has rather less to be encouraged about. This defeat was sealed by a Robbie Brady penalty, awarded by referee Kevin Friend after an act of "simulation" by the Irish winger, according to Allardyce. Bruce joked that his long-term friend will have replayed the incident on 3D - "he scrutinises everything like that." Allardyce was not so jovial. West Ham have now not won since the opening day of the season. He revealed that he had emphasised the importance of this game to his squad beforehand with fixtures against Tottenham and Manchester City to follow. "To lose was a big blow," he said. He was furious, too, with Friend for failing to spot a handball by ­Livermore in the second half which would have presented the chance for an ­equaliser. More concerning, though, was his team's lack of striking conviction. With Andy Carroll out injured for an indeterminate period of time, Allardyce will have to persevere with the struggling Modibo Maiga, free-transfer signing Mladen Petric and the returning Carlton Cole, who was released by the club in the summer. "We tried to alleviate that problem before the transfer deadline but six or seven that we tried at the top end of the scale failed to join us for whatever reason," Allardyce said. We ended up with Mladen [Petric], who hasn't had a pre-season. We just have to get our act together in front of goal as quickly as we can.