Aaron Cresswell is hopeful that West Ham United can bounce back from Saturday’s disappointing 2-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace and enjoy a strong finish to the season.
The Hammers failed to back up their previous 3-2 triumph over Fulham when the Eagles made the short trip across the capital to London Stadium, with two second-half Jean-Philippe Mateta strikes proving the difference between the sides on a bleak winter’s afternoon.
A frustrating display was compounded by Dinos Mavropanos’ sending off - for two bookable offences - with ten minutes left, but Cresswell believes he and his teammates will take plenty out of the encounter, which was their third under new boss Graham Potter.
“We’re really disappointed with how the result’s gone, and with our performance,” said the 35-year-old, who completed little under an hour of the contest before being replaced by Academy graduate Ollie Scarles.
“The first goal in particular was disappointing to concede. Palace have been on a good run of form of late, and though it was sloppy from us, he [Mateta] took it well.
“It’s not an excuse but we’ve got a lot of key players out at the minute, and we all know as a collective that there’s a lot of work to do. It’s a disappointing day, but we’ll get back to the training ground ready to go again, looking forward to the next game.”
With Potter having overseen three matches in just over a week in charge, Cresswell believes the whole squad will benefit from a full week’s training under the Head Coach ahead of Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa.
Villa Park was incidentally the stage for Potter’s first outing in the Irons’ dugout - which ended in a narrow Emirates FA Cup third-round exit - and our No3 is confident of bettering that result second time around, and kickstarting a good run to improve their current 14th-place standing.
Cresswell added: “We know there’s a lot of work to do, and ultimately the new manager’s come in for a reason. We’ve not been good enough as players, but we have stick together and go again.
“Since he [Potter] has come in, there’s been a really good buzz around the training ground. Everyone’s positive and ready to learn.
“We’ve got to stick together through the hard times and stay positive. We’ve got lots of games left, we’ve got plenty to play for, and I’m sure the future will get better.”
