Robert Snodgrass hopes Wednesday’s 4-0 Premier League win over AFC Bournemouth is the first step towards rebuilding the trust between West Ham United’s players and supporters.
The Scot admitted the fans were right to be frustrated after a disappointing autumn that saw the Hammers plunge down the table.
However, with belief seemingly instilled by new manager and fellow Glaswegian David Moyes, the hard-working Snodgrass hopes the squad can repay the faith and loyalty of the Claret and Blue Army over the second half of the season.
“I think the fans have been frustrated,” he observed. “We had lost nine out of 12 before Wednesday’s win and any fan would be upset with losing that number of games, especially at the start of the season.
“We had a couple of good results at Chelsea and Southampton but we couldn’t put back-to-back wins together and that was frustrating for us as players, and also for the fans.
“We come as a package, with them supporting us, and what a way to try and get them back onside and pushing forward with a result and performance like that?”
The manager wanted to get off to a good start and we wanted to make a fresh start as it’s a new year and it’s our first game and get our first points on the board for him
Robert Snodgrass
West Ham had dropped into the relegation zone prior to their New Year’s Day meeting with the Cherries, but ignored any perceived pressure to produce arguably their best display of the season so far.
Now, said Snodgrass, the challenge is for the Irons to repeat that same level of performance when they travel to eighth-place, newly-promoted Sheffield United for their next Premier League fixture on Friday 10 January.
“It’s massive,” the No11 confirmed. “With the way the other results went before the game, we knew it was a ‘must-win’ and we knew we had to get off to the right start under the new manager.
“The manager’s obviously come in and told us where we need to be better. We’ve worked on what we needed to improve on in the short space of time we had and it all came together and it was a great result and a massive performance from everybody.
“Listen, he wanted to get off to a good start and we wanted to make a fresh start as it’s a new year and it’s our first game and get our first points on the board for him. It’s taken us away from the relegation zone a bit and now we’ll look to kick on.
“Next game, we play Sheffield United, who are a massive club and have done everything right in the Premier League so far, for me, so it’ll be a different test for us because we’ve struggled for confidence of late and Sheffield United are full of confidence.
“It’ll be a difficult test, but we take it one step at a time after a great result.”
