Hammers Head Coach spoke on how disappointed he was with how his side conceded an early goal but mentioned how they’ll learn from the performance.
West Ham started the game poorly and Brentford took advantage of that by opening the scoring with only four minutes played. Kevin Schade followed up the quickest to Alphonse Areola’s save and his effort managed to cross the line despite the Frenchman seeming to have stopped the ball from going in.
The Hammers were lucky not be behind by more at the break. Yoane Wissa put the ball in the net, but the offside flag was raised and Schade fired an effort of the outside of the upright.
Potter’s side did improve in the second half with Mohammed Kudus having the best chance to equalise when he fired over from close range. It wasn’t meant to be for the East London Club as they fell to back to back defeats.
The West Ham Head Coach spoke after the game regarding the early goal and the first half.
“Certainly from the first half you have to credit Brentford, we suffered with an early goal.”
“It was a poor goal from our perspective and then we lost ability, we didn’t perform as we wanted to at all, so we have to learn from that.”
“Sometimes you have to say, look, we didn’t do what we wanted to do and it’s a collective. It’s not just the players, its myself and everybody involved.”
“Brentford are good, they defend deep really well. They make it hard for you to create chances and then they're really dangerous on the break, so it was almost a perfect first half for them and a nightmare first half for us.”
“We were all frustrated at half-time for sure.”
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Second Half Reaction
West Ham improved in the second half. The changes made a big difference, Evan Ferguson, James Ward-Prowse and Ollie Scarles all had an impact. Potter spoke how his side reacted well and how the substitutions helped.
“I thought the response in the second half was really positive. I thought Evan [Ferguson] came on and did well. James [Ward-Prowse] showed his quality. Ollie [Scarles] had an impact.”
“Credit to the players they hung in and the response second half like I said was really positive.”
“We pushed and pushed if we're going to lose a game, I'd rather lose it in the second half the way we played than the way we played in the first half.”
“The support's been brilliant, we can't complain about that at all. They're well within their rights to be disappointed at half-time, absolutely. The second half, the response of the crowd was first class, it was brilliant, and they got behind the team, so that's all we can ask for.”
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Ward-Prowse Returns
The midfielder returned to West Ham on Transfer Deadline Day after spending the first half of the season on loan at Nottingham Forest. The 30 year-old commented on how he was pleased to be back but how the performance wasn’t good enough.
“First half we didn’t really get going.”
“Second half, obviously we needed to have a reaction, I felt we were a more in control of the game. We gave it a good go but obviously we know from the standards this clubs had in recent years; it wasn’t good enough.”
“It’s been a good first week personally to be back in the building and see how the managers been working. I’ve really enjoyed the messages he’s been trying to get across and it’s up to us to try implement that as much as we can.”
“I’ve been looking forward to it all week [playing in front of the fans], just nice to be back, it feels like I’m sort of back home if you like.”
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Ferguson Makes His Debut
The Irishman featured for the first time since joining from Brighton on Deadline Day. Coming on at half-time the forward did make an impact and spoke on how good it was to be back out on the pitch after being on the sidelines for a while.
“For me personally, it was good to get back out there and make my debut for the club, but I think as the game goes, we all know as a squad and as a unit that it needs to be better.”
“I think after the first half it was hard to get worse than that, as a sub you come on and you just want to make an impact and I think the three lads who came on, we gave the team a lift.”
“It is tough work [playing up front alone] but I’ve played against teams like that before, I know what’s coming and we’ve trained on during the week in what we need to do, so it’s not like I don’t know what’s going on.”
“It feels good [playing again], I feel alright, to be fair I think its good I’m in a new place, new environment, sort of have that fresh start.”
The Hammers will be hoping they can start picking up points but face a tough test in their next fixture when they travel to the Emirates to face Arsenal.
