David Moyes was in no mood to pull any punches following a game in which the Hammers were left very much second best on the south coast last night.
It’s all well and good moaning about dodgy penalties but the fact is we weren’t good enough last night against a team that had made nine changes and looked a far better outfit than us.
Moyes desire to win a trophy was apparent from the start given the team he selected but in the end we looked a shadow of the side that had beaten Wolves.
Blaming individuals is the usual outcome but it changes absolutely nothing and a season of rich promise has now been diminished by the sad exit from both domestic Cup tournaments.
It can be argued that the manager should have rested one of two but there were few complaints before the game when his commitment to the game became clear.
And afterwards he told www.whufc.com: “It’s not what I wanted, it’s not what I hoped for.
We’re going to have to play much better if we’re going to get anything at all this season. We just didn’t have any quality at all in the final third.
Our build-up was fine, our football was quite good. We went behind to a worldie of a goal but every time we went near their goal it was like we were hitting a brick wall.
We were so bad in and around their box. You need quality, and we certainly lacked it tonight.
We got back in the game and we looked as if we were the better team. If anybody looked like they were going to shade it, it might be us.
But we gave away an unbelievably bad second goal which gave them the chance when it should never be the case. We were going to be the team on top, we were going to dominate it, and we gave it away.
Daws should never have let Broja get anywhere near a chance to get in on goal, and that’s where it starts from. If you make a mistake and you’re in the wrong positioning, then you’re going to get caught out. That’s what we were.
We don’t lose goals like Southampton’s third. It was too easy. A couple of throw-ins down the right-hand side here and it ended up being a goal for them.
I’ve got to say, it feels terrible tonight. If the players don’t improve then we’ve not got anything to play for. We need to up our game.
The fans were great. I’m just really disappointed we didn’t give them more because, at one each, we looked like the team that was going to go forward and get the winner.