Ward-Prowse admits defeat was down to Hammers
By Hughie Southon
James Ward-Prowse has admitted the today’s defeat was entirely down to the Hammers. And that is hard to take when the same things were been saying by players and staff after the 4-1 defeat at Aston Villa.
The story of the match is now well known. The Bees went ahead early via Neal Maupay before Mohammed Kudus’ produced a brilliant scissor kicked strike and Jarrod Bowen’s close-range finish put is ahead.
Ward Prowse
However, dreadful defending in the second half saw Konstantinos Mavropanos head into his own net and Nathan Collins nodded home the winner.
Ward-Prowse, who captained the Hammers in Kurt Zouma’s absence on Saturday, acknowledged that the side had failed to hit their the top level. .
Ward-Prowse admits defeat was down to Hammers
“It’s a hard one to take,” he told West Ham TV. “It was a disappointing game all round. I think we started the game quite slowly and we conceded quite a sloppy goal. We got back into it with two really well taken goals and, when you’re in that position, it’s about seeing the game out.
“We knew they would come again in the second half and it wasn’t good enough from us, to give the game away like we did, and give away three really soft goals.”
He made it crystal clear that such errors will be punished and it was that which lost us a match we might have taken something from.
Ward Prowse admits disappointing defeat down to Hammers
He added: “There’s a few mistakes we made throughout the game and that’s really disappointing, because we caused the defeat ourselves. We’ve not suffered from their brilliance; we’ve made the mistakes and been punished.
“In the Premier League, you can’t afford to give any team three goals and then expect ourselves to score four. At 2-1 up, it was a pivotal moment for us, and we should have seen the game out.
“We had some positives like that spell in the first half, but you can’t afford to do it for only small periods in a game. You need to do it throughout when you’re playing against any team, and if you’re not on your metal then you’re going to get punished. That was our doing today, not theirs.”
He added: Mo (Kudus) and Jarrod are showing real quality, scoring two really-well taken goals, especially Mo’s, and they’ve got fantastic quality.
“I’m pleased for them but I know I speak for them when I say they’d rather the three points. It’s something for us to work on and improve on.”
With two home games to come in the next week, against Olympiacos in the UEFA Europa League and Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, Ward-Prowse is eager for the Hammers to grab the chance to put things right and get back to winning ways before the international break.
“I think I’ve said before that the beauty of football is that there’s always an opportunity to play another game and turns things around right around the corner,” he added.
“Olympiacos at home is a fantastic fixture to be a part of and hopefully we can take advantage of it.”