Asher Falase says the most important thing is that West Ham United U18s bounce back after falling to a 2-1 defeat against Southampton on Saturday.
The young Hammers saw their 12 game winning streak come to an end at Staplewood Training Ground after a tight encounter.
Will Merry gave the Saints a first half lead but Jemiah Umolu hit back for the Irons with fifteen minutes remaining, providing an instant impact off the bench.
The hosts were awarded a penalty with ten minutes remaining and Tyler Dibling slotted the ball into the net to secure three points for the hosts.
The Hammers still hold a thirteen point lead at the top of the U18s Premier League South table, after winning twelve matches of their opening thirteen matches, and the defender was eager to highlight the positives from the season so far.
“It’s a tough result to take and obviously we’re all disappointed,” Falase told whufc.com. “I think it’s important for us all to keep our heads up though. It’s been a fantastic season so far and we want to return to winning ways again in our next match.
“It wasn’t the result that we wanted today and we could’ve played better at times too. We have an important Youth Cup match against Stoke City on Friday so it’s all about preparing for that now and putting this result behind us.”
After a disappointing first half, the Irons improved drastically in the second half, deservedly equalising through Umolu.
Falase suggested that the Hammers needed to perform over the course of 90 minutes if they wanted to win the match.
He continued: “The coaches can see on the sidelines when it’s not going well, but as players we also need to take responsibility too. I feel like individually we should have made some changes to our own games during the first half because we weren’t playing well.
“We changed formation in the second half and it worked really well for us and it allowed us to get back into the match. We dominated the second half for large periods and Southampton couldn’t get near us at times. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough for us today, our first half let us down in terms of getting a result.”
The defender suggested that it is important not to dwell on the team’s first league defeat of the season, after an incredible twelve match winning streak was brought to an end.
Falase is confident that the Hammers can return to winning ways next week against Stoke in the FA Youth Cup.
“We really wanted to keep our winning run going and we were confident that we could do that after equalising. We worked really hard to get that goal and it was tough to concede again just moments later.
“That’s football though and we need to bounce back now. We need to put this result behind us, we know that we’re a good team and we know what we can do at our best, so our focus will now turn to Stoke on Friday night.”
