The South Coast strugglers held relegation rivals West Ham 1-1 at Fratton Park on Tuesday night but remain five points adrift of safety. Substitute Danny Webber's strike after 75 minutes cancelled out Matthew Upson's opener for the Hammers after 52 minutes. Seeing his side come from behind to salvage a draw was a positive end to the day for Grant, who earlier was informed the Premier League would allow the club to register new players in the closing days of the transfer window. Grant is hopeful of landing "three or four" new players by the end of the month, but admits any transfer deals would have been more beneficial to his team if they had been concluded earlier in the month. He said: "It's good news but if we're looking at how things needed to be, we needed to do it on January 1. "If we had brought in three or four players, we would have come into this game with a full bench. "As I understand, we can only bring in loan players or players without a contract. "We'll try to do our best but we have only four days. It will be very difficult but we'll do it because the squad is very short." One key target for Grant is to bring influential midfielder Jamie O'Hara back to the club on loan from Tottenham. Having played for both teams this term, FIFA rules prevent the left-sided star from representing another club. So Grant admits a return for O'Hara is now "possible", but he is not so keen to let any of his leading lights leave. Younes Kaboul and Nadir Belhadj have both been linked with moves, while goalkeeper David James is reportedly on the brink of joining Stoke on loan until May. But Grant joked: "If these players go, I would need to play, and I cannot play!" He added: "To be serious, we want to stay in the league and we can do that. "But we have a long way to go and we need every player we have now." West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola was dejected that his charges failed to leave Fratton Park with maximum points. The Hammers remain 16th in the table and their superior goal difference keeps them above Wolves and Burnley, who also have 20 points. But Zola knows his side could have pulled clear with victory tonight. He said: "I thought we controlled the game and I couldn't see them scoring because we defended very well. Actually, I was expecting us to score another goal at any time. "But it's okay and it's fair to say they fought hard until the end. "Nothing takes away from the fact we played a good game and we're getting better and better. "It was a very important game because we were playing against a team that is behind us. "It was important not to lose but I think we deserved something more from the game." Zola is also hopeful of entering the transfer market in the final few days of January, but was impressed by the quality of his current squad members at Fratton Park. He added: "I can only praise these players because the way they play and their attitude is unbelievable. "They gave everything for the team and that is important. "Maybe we will have more quality in the future and that will benefit everybody. "But whoever comes in has to have the same attitude these boys have because that's the key to success."
