David Moyes felt an otherwise good performance was undermined by defensive mistakes in West Ham United’s 3-3 Premier League draw with Brighton & Hove Albion.
There were plenty of positives about the Hammers’ display, with Robert Snodgrass scoring two fine goals, the returning Michail Antonio playing with pace and power, and debutant Tomáš Souček showing why he has excelled in the UEFA Champions League and at international level.
However, two mistakes inside their own penalty area and a controversial equaliser scored by Glenn Murray, whose late leveller looked like it was initially ruled out for handball by referee Michael Oliver, before being overturned by VAR official Andre Marriner, saw the Irons twice relinquish a two-goal lead.
I thought we did an awful lot of good things, but it's been tarnished by a couple of mistakes
David Moyes
"I thought the performance, in the main, was very good," he said. "I thought we made a couple of really, really silly mistakes and, because of that, it obviously labels the team because we are a team, but for long periods of the game our performance was very good.
"We were 2-0 up and 3-1 up and we carried a threat at different times, as did they. I thought we did an awful lot of good things, but it's been tarnished by a couple of mistakes.
"We gave them a leg up just after half-time, then a massive leg up at 3-1, just after we had taken Micky Antonio off after 70 minutes. We were hanging on at that time and it became quite difficult by the end. For us to play Liverpool and the effort the players put in in midweek, I thought fatigue played a part in the second half and it had an impact on it."
The returning Antonio, who was back after missing the midweek defeat by Liverpool through injury, and new boy Souček both impressed.
“I thought Tomáš Souček did very well, Ryan Fredericks has just come back from a hamstring, and Micky Antonio has returned as well and, in their own way, I thought they all contributed," Moyes continued. "I think you would say Tomáš was very unlucky and he could have had a couple of goals.
"I think his effort was something we were glad to see as he was someone who will get in the box and get us goals. For his debut, you'd have to say he has done really well. I have to say a lot of the players did really well for us, so the disappointing thing was that, from having a good lead and looking on course for three points, we let it slip.
“We go again. In the end, we take a point from the game. We need to do more than that but, look, one is better than none.”
