David Moyes cut a frustrated figure after seeing his West Ham United side draw 1-1 at Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday evening – but he is not giving up on the Hammers’ European dream.
The Irons were the better side at the Amex Stadium, but failed to turn possession and opportunities in the final third into goals.
And the visitors paid for their wastefulness when substitute Percy Tau played in Danny Welbeck to put the Seagulls in front six minutes from full-time.
To their credit, West Ham levelled when replacement Said Benrahma curled in his first goal for the Club from 25 yards three minutes later, but the Londoners were forced to settle for a point when three would have kept their top-six destiny in their own hands.
Speaking to West Ham TV, the manager felt his players had given their all but did not quite make the most of their chances…
I thought we played well again.
It was very similar to the Everton game. I thought we controlled long periods of the game but we gave away a really, really bad goal – quite similar to the one we gave away against Everton – and from that we had to come back.
It was probably our play in the final third where we didn’t do enough – we didn’t make a good enough final pass or we didn’t make enough contact when we had a chance to score et cetera.
Some moments weren’t good and we gave up quite a lot of opportunities to make better chances.
I’m not that pleased [with the result] but I’m taking your point and I’m taking the point we got here tonight.
Getting a point [after falling behind] with six minutes to go was good and the players showed a lot of character to make sure that we earned it. A point might be really important – it could be.
We are frustrated because we’re playing really well but we’re not getting rewarded for it.
The players were playing really well, their football’s improved. I would like that to show fruition by the goals and the last bit [of moves], but we’re not showing that by what we’re doing in the final third of the pitch at the moment.
I’ve not seen the penalty appeals for handball back but that’s the way it went. I’ve questioned a few of the referee’s decisions and we had a few to question again tonight.
My message to everyone associated with the Club is the same: Keep going.
We think we’ve done a lot of good things and we’ll try and keep it going.
We’ve played well tonight. I’m disappointed just now because I wanted to take three points, and answering the questions isn’t easy when I’m so disappointed with us not getting a win.
We should never have gone a goal down in the first place, but as I said, great credit to the players for coming back.
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