James Collins says West Ham United were happy to ‘stop the rot’ after ending a run of four straight Premier League defeats with a 1-1 draw with Middlesbrough.
The Hammers fell behind to Cristhian Stuani’s header early in the second half, but Dimitri Payet lifted the roof off London Stadium with a sensational individual equaliser six minutes later.
While Collins felt West Ham deserved to beat Boro on the day, the No19 said a draw would give Slaven Bilic’s squad something to build upon when they return to action at Crystal Palace after the international break.
“I think we knew we had to stop the rot,” said the Wales defender. “Obviously it’s been terrible the last four or five weeks so we knew we had to stop conceding goals and a point is what we needed.
“I thought we played better than that and deserved the three points, if I’m honest, but it stops the rot and we’ve got a break now and can get our heads on for the next game.”
West Ham outshot Aitor Karanka’s visitors 19 to nine, but only two of those goal attempts were on target, including Payet’s incredible leveller.
At the other end, Boro had just three shots on target themselves, including Stuani’s header, which Mark Noble just failed to clear before the ball crossed the line.
Reflecting on the opening goal, Collins was disappointed and frustrated to see the Hammers concede from something as basic as a set piece.
“It’s always disappointing to concede, especially after the position we had got ourselves in and from something as straightforward as a corner,” he reflected.
“We’ve each got a man and we’ve got to do better than that and we haven’t done that, and it’s probably cost us three points, but it’s a step in the right direction.”
On a positive note, Payet again showed why he is one of the world’s best attackers 12 minutes after half-time.
There looked little direct threat when he collected Winston Reid’s long pass on the left touchline, but he thought otherwise, beating Antonio Barragan and then four other Middlesbrough players as he cut across the penalty area before shooting low past Victor Valdes.
The goal deserved to be a winner, and Collins says the Hammers need to do more to support the No27.
“It’s a great goal and Dimi is a world-class player, but we can’t depend on him,” said the centre-half. “We can’t depend on him to keep making goals like this, we need to be better defensively and better going forward and take our chances.
“It’s a lot to keep asking Dimi to come up with goals like that, so it’s something we need to work on.”
Collins will now pack his bags for FIFA World Cup qualifying duty, while a number of his teammates will jet off to represent their countries, and he believes the Hammers will continue to improve after the international hiatus.
“We can come back stronger after the break,” he insisted. “We needed that. We had a good week’s training and a couple of meetings as it’s not been going great over the last few games.
“We’ve stopped conceding goals, defended reasonably well apart from their goal and got a point.”