It’s easy to panic when you encounter an early setback, but West Ham United defender Aaron Cresswell was delighted with the way his teammates responded to theirs against Leeds United on Friday evening.
Barely two minutes were on the clock at Elland Road when the hosts seized upon a loose ball in midfield and played in Patrick Bamford, whose contact with West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski won Leeds a penalty that Mateusz Klich converted at the second attempt.
Yet the Irons remained undaunted.
Instead, they worked their way back into the game and, having come close on several occasions prior, claimed a deserved equaliser midway through the first half when Tomáš Souček produced a towering header from Jarrod Bowen’s corner kick.
On chances alone, only one team looked set to win the game in the second half, and West Ham eventually did so when Angelo Ogbonna powered home a header from Cresswell’s free-kick with ten minutes remaining.
The No3's assist – his fourth in the Premier League this season, the joint-highest total of any defender – was a fitting way to crown a landmark 200th Premier League appearance of his career.
We know what Leeds are all about – they never stop, they really graft and run all over the pitch – but credit to the lads, we stuck together and got the three points that we wanted
Aaron Cresswell
Afterwards, Cresswell credited the 2-1 victory to how well West Ham banded together and persisted, even in the face of their early disappointment and spurned opportunities.
“I think if you look at it, it was similar to the Manchester United game with the chances we created,” he reflected. “We had more than four or five – you could say clear-cut – chances, but we couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.
“We know what Leeds are all about – they never stop, they really graft and run all over the pitch – but credit to the lads, we stuck together and got the three points that we wanted.
“I think it [our gameplan] went out of the window after two minutes when they got the penalty, but these things happen. As long as we didn’t lose our heads and give away another goal…
“[In the second half] it was just about not giving up and keeping going. Credit to the lads, we stuck with it and got the three points.”
With both West Ham goals stemming from set-pieces, Cresswell took the opportunity after the game to praise first-team coaches Paul Nevin and Kevin Nolan for their meticulous preparation of the players for such opportunities.
Cresswell also hailed teammate Ogbonna for the thumping header which ultimately sealed the result.
“Set-pieces are massive,” he confirmed. “We’ve got Paul [Nevin] and Kevin Nolan who take a real shine to it and really sit down and work it out. Credit to them.
“You look at our set-pieces – not only the first contact, but the second phase, like when Tomáš gets to the second balls… it’s a massive part of our game and it’s worked again tonight.
“[For the winner] Angelo stepped up again. Lucky for me, I put a good ball in and he’s got on the end of it and put one in for me!”
After an eight-year absence of the fixture, the Hammers’ first win at Elland Road since November 2000 sees them rise to fifth in the Premier League table, only four points behind the league-leading sides.
With 200 appearances in the competition under his belt, however, Cresswell knows better than to look beyond the next game in the Premier League, instead reiterating that slow and steady progress will take West Ham United where they want to go this season.
He explained: “We’ve just got to keep looking forward to the next game and not get too far ahead of ourselves.
“We looked at the fixtures at the start of the season, lots of them against the top seven teams, and we knew it was going to be a tough start.
“We’ve done really well with it and we’re not getting complacent. 12 games in, it’s still early – let’s just see where we can go.”
