Mark Noble lamented West Ham United’s inability to take one of the host of chances they created and the manner of the goal they conceded in Friday’s 1-0 Premier League defeat at Brighton & Hove Albion.
The Hammers made 17 goal attempts to Brighton’s nine, won nine corners to the Seagulls’ two and enjoyed a season-high 64.7 per cent possession of the ball, but just could not find a way past goalkeeper Mat Ryan and the well-drilled defence in front of him.
And all those spurned opportunities meant the hosts left the Amex with all three points through Glenn Murray’s first-half goal – his sixth in his last five matches against West Ham.
If you don’t score goals you lose games and that’s what happened to us tonight
Mark Noble
“We weren’t at the races in the first half,” Noble admitted. “They got a chance and they scored it and it was a bit of a nothing game at that point. We attacked and we had the ball, but we rushed it to be honest.
“We kept trying to score too quickly. In the second half, we should have scored. We should have got at least one, but that’s football for you. We did that to Chelsea a couple of weeks ago when they had a lot of possession but we held them out.”
The goal that decided the game came midway through the first half and was symptomatic of West Ham’s night on the south coast.
Andriy Yarmolenko was robbed of possession on halfway, Beram Kayal raced down the left wing and crossed for Murray, who ran between Issa Diop and Arthur Masuaku to convert past a helpless Lukasz Fabianski.
Noble was disappointed by the nature of the goal, but tried to take the positive out of an overall performance that, on another night, could easily have yielded three points rather than zero.
“The goal was disappointing. I gave it to Yarmo and it got stuck under his feet. Murray was in the box free on his own, but listen we’ve had a great couple of weeks and in spells we played like we can play and we should definitely have scored at least one but to be fair to Brighton they defended really well and we couldn’t break them down.
“We lost to Brighton twice last year and we know they’re a top team, and sometimes it just doesn’t go for you. We had enough chances to at least equalise.
“If you don’t score goals you lose games and that’s what happened to us tonight.”