Conceding another devastating late goal left manager Sam Allardyce feeling sick to the stomach
Conceding late goals has become a painful habit for West Ham United fans to have to stomach in 2015.
On Saturday, in the home finale against Everton, the Boleyn Ground faithful were again stunned as Everton stole victory through Romelu Lukaku’s 93rd-minute winner.
Manager Sam Allardyce also looked stunned as his Hammers side slipped into the bottom half of the Barclays Premier League with one game remaining of a season that had promised a great deal at Christmas time.
It has been far from a disastrous 2014/15 campaign, with 47 points being West Ham’s best top-flight haul since 2008/09, but Big Sam says his squad could and should have collected more.
Saturday’s defeat was particularly hard to take, seeing as the home side had taken a deserved lead through Stewart Downing’s fine 62nd-minute goal, only for Leon Osman to equalise out of nothing six minutes later, and Lukaku to thrust a late knife into Hammers hearts yet again.
“It’s happened again and I think that the players are learning a hard and fast since the turn of the year, when we were on the crest of a wave for so long,” the manager told West Ham TV.
“We’ve come crashing down and realised the level we are playing at and the mistakes you can’t make because they will be punished. There have been some hard lessons learned by the players – especially the younger players and the players who have joined us from abroad.
“They might have thought around Christmas that the Premier League was not as hard as they thought, but now they realise the tough end of the Premier League by how many times they have been punished for losing their shape and losing their concentration, not protecting what they have got.
“That’s far too many leads that we’ve relinquished, most of the time due to our own deficiencies in terms of defending as a team. We were winning 1-0 and that should have been enough. It was about protecting that lead.
“Everton had nothing to lose and were going to take more and more risks, so we had to counteract that by defending properly. Everton would then leave more spaces and we could have counter-attacked and scored.
“We let it go the opposite way and we shouldn’t have done that when we were leading 1-0.”
On Saturday, in the home finale against Everton, the Boleyn Ground faithful were again stunned as Everton stole victory through Romelu Lukaku’s 93rd-minute winner.
Manager Sam Allardyce also looked stunned as his Hammers side slipped into the bottom half of the Barclays Premier League with one game remaining of a season that had promised a great deal at Christmas time.
It has been far from a disastrous 2014/15 campaign, with 47 points being West Ham’s best top-flight haul since 2008/09, but Big Sam says his squad could and should have collected more.
Saturday’s defeat was particularly hard to take, seeing as the home side had taken a deserved lead through Stewart Downing’s fine 62nd-minute goal, only for Leon Osman to equalise out of nothing six minutes later, and Lukaku to thrust a late knife into Hammers hearts yet again.
“It’s happened again and I think that the players are learning a hard and fast since the turn of the year, when we were on the crest of a wave for so long,” the manager told West Ham TV.
“We’ve come crashing down and realised the level we are playing at and the mistakes you can’t make because they will be punished. There have been some hard lessons learned by the players – especially the younger players and the players who have joined us from abroad.
“They might have thought around Christmas that the Premier League was not as hard as they thought, but now they realise the tough end of the Premier League by how many times they have been punished for losing their shape and losing their concentration, not protecting what they have got.
“That’s far too many leads that we’ve relinquished, most of the time due to our own deficiencies in terms of defending as a team. We were winning 1-0 and that should have been enough. It was about protecting that lead.
“Everton had nothing to lose and were going to take more and more risks, so we had to counteract that by defending properly. Everton would then leave more spaces and we could have counter-attacked and scored.
“We let it go the opposite way and we shouldn’t have done that when we were leading 1-0.”
There have been some hard lessons learned by the players – especially the younger players and the players who have joined us from abroad
While Winston Reid returned to the starting XI after injury, the Hammers lost James Collins to a leg problem early on, adding to a list of absences that also includes Andy Carroll, Diafra Sakho and James Tomkins.
Reece Burke produced another assured display as a substitute, only to learn the harsh realities of top-flight football when Lukaku ghosted in behind him to head Aiden McGeady’s cross past Adrian.
“They scored [the equaliser] when we were in our best spell of the game, exerting pressure on them,” the manager lamented. “Let’s face it, the bottom line is that Everton’s front line was more clinical than our front line.
“That has been our problem for a long time and that’s why we had to protect the lead that we got. On paper, the way we have gone turn the end of the year, we weren’t going to score two. We got one and we should have had a penalty for handball against Coleman in the first half, which was an outrageous decision. He flipped his hand on it down in the corner, but the referee hasn’t given it.
“We got the goal, a brilliant goal it was too from Stewart, and a fantastic performance from Reece Burke coming on as a substitute again. He is 18-years-old and he’s really disappointed that we’ve lost, but put in a really good performance against Lukaku, who is one of the strongest and most difficult opponents you can play against in this league.
“I know you can look at the last goal and say who should have done what, maybe, but at the end of the day he has real future at West Ham.
“I’m really disappointed for the players because they didn’t deserve that, but they shot themselves in the foot.”
Reece Burke produced another assured display as a substitute, only to learn the harsh realities of top-flight football when Lukaku ghosted in behind him to head Aiden McGeady’s cross past Adrian.
“They scored [the equaliser] when we were in our best spell of the game, exerting pressure on them,” the manager lamented. “Let’s face it, the bottom line is that Everton’s front line was more clinical than our front line.
“That has been our problem for a long time and that’s why we had to protect the lead that we got. On paper, the way we have gone turn the end of the year, we weren’t going to score two. We got one and we should have had a penalty for handball against Coleman in the first half, which was an outrageous decision. He flipped his hand on it down in the corner, but the referee hasn’t given it.
“We got the goal, a brilliant goal it was too from Stewart, and a fantastic performance from Reece Burke coming on as a substitute again. He is 18-years-old and he’s really disappointed that we’ve lost, but put in a really good performance against Lukaku, who is one of the strongest and most difficult opponents you can play against in this league.
“I know you can look at the last goal and say who should have done what, maybe, but at the end of the day he has real future at West Ham.
“I’m really disappointed for the players because they didn’t deserve that, but they shot themselves in the foot.”