- Slaven Bilic was left frustrated following West Ham United's 1-1 home draw with Stoke City
- The manager felt 'neither side deserved to win' a game low on goalmouth action
- Bilic refused to blame goalkeeper Adrian's mistake for his side dropping two points
Slaven Bilic refused to blame goalkeeper Adrian’s error for West Ham United’s failure to overcome Stoke City on Saturday.
The Spaniard’s mistake enabled Potters substitute Bojan Krkic to equalise out of next to nothing with 15 minutes remaining, cancelling out Glenn Whelan’s 65th-minute own-goal.
Prior to Krkic’s leveller, West Ham looked likely to edge a match that was otherwise low on excitement and goalmouth incident.
“It is frustrating and not what we were looking for,” Bilic confirmed. “We got a point at the end but we were looking for all three.
“It was not a very good game from both sides. It was a very physical game and in the first half we didn’t do well and were simply not good enough. We started flat and without a tempo.
“In the second half, after ten minutes, we made some changes and put two players up front and then scored the goal and had our best part of the game from when we scored until when they scored.
“Then we conceded a very cheap one, to be fair. It was a fair result at the end of the day, because neither team deserved to win. It’s a point, we are frustrated, but it’s a point.”
At the other end, Adrian watched a succession of long-range Phil Bardsley strike fly wide of his goal, but there was more to get the 56,970-strong London Stadium crowd excited about after the interval.
Shortly after a personnel and tactical switch which saw Bilic introduce Ashley Fletcher and Edimilson Fernandes and go from 3-4-3 to 3-5-2, West Ham went ahead as Dimitri Payet’s cross was flicked on by Michail Antonio before going in off Whelan.
The Hammers looked like going on to win more comfortably, only for Adrian’s misjudgement in racing from his goal and bringing down Walters to lead directly to Bojan’s equaliser.
“It’s a mistake,” said the manager. “Adrian misjudged the ball. It looked like he would never get the ball and we gave away a very cheap goal, but you can’t say that is the reason why we didn’t win the game.
“OK, we were one goal up with 15 minutes to go, and it was a very cheap goal to give away and it’s cost us a win.”
Finally, Bilic had words of praise for the Claret and Blue Army, who gave a typically respectful display during the pre-match Remembrance Day commemorations, before roaring their team on positively throughout the 90 minutes.
“The atmosphere was good, a normal football atmosphere. The fans were behind us, but we didn’t give them what they deserved today.”