West Ham United defender James Collins has said that the late 2-1 defeat to Chelsea was tough to take.
All in vain
Slaven Bilic's side were optimistic as they headed across London in a fierce derby, but Collins and his teammates were feeling the pressure as Chelsea bombarded Adrian's goal in the first period.
The Blues took the lead through Eden Hazard's penalty early in the second period, before the Wales international's excellent effort looked to have secured a point from the Hammers. However a late effort from Diego Costa stole all three points for Antonio Conte's side, and Collins shared his disappointment at the defeat.
He told whufc.com: “It was tough,” and admitted “I don’t think we played particularly well and didn’t deserve a win or maybe even a draw, but when you get to the 89th minute at 1-1, you should be hanging on to a point,".
Speaking about how his team played in relation to the result, Collins said; "Obviously we didn’t play as well as we could, but it would have been a great point."
He continued: “You never think you have done enough against Chelsea because they’re a class team. They had a dip last year but they were right back on form tonight and it was a tough game. We’re obviously disappointed,"
Despite grabbing his goal, Collins stated that is was "no consolation" and revealed that he thinks "I should score more, to be honest" given the amount of time he spends up the pitch at set-pieces.
Moving on to the next one
Bilic's side will have to pick themselves up, and dust themselves off quickly, as they will travel to the continent, taking on Astra Giurgiu in their Europa League play-off, and Collins said that the side will be prepared for their trip to Romania.
Collins concluded: "We go on to the next one. We've got a tough game away in Romania, so we'll regroup, we''ll train on Tuesday, watch the video from the game and take what we can out of it."
West Ham United will take on Astra Giurgiu in their Europa League play-off at the Stadionul Marin Anastasovici on Thursday, August 18 with kick-off at 7:45pm BST.