Graham Potter did not feel his West Ham United team did enough to beat Newcastle United on Monday evening.
But, at the same time, he felt Maximilian Kilman was fouled by Alexander Isak as Harvey Barnes’ cross floated over his head and was converted by Bruno Guimarães for the only goal of a tight game at London Stadium.
And so it was that the Magpies flew back to the North East with a 1-0 victory, and the Hammers were left to rue a decision or two that went against them, and a failure to turn repeated forays into the final third into clear chances and, ultimately, goals.
Moments after Guimarães’s 63rd-minute strike, Jarrod Bowen went down under a challenge from the Brazilian inside the Newcastle penalty area, but referee Michael Salisbury again waved away the home appeals, and VAR Alex Chilowicz agreed with the initial call.
Earlier, Tomáš Souček had fired over inside 60 seconds of kick-off and both Bowen and Mohammed Kudus had shot straight at Nick Pope as the Irons started brightly, but the EFL Cup finalists resisted everything the home side could create and secured a narrow win.
Speaking to West Ham TV, Potter felt his team had worked hard and been hard done by, by the decisions that went in Newcastle’s favour and played their part in the Londoners going home empty-handed.
On a more positive note, the Head Coach was happy to see Michail Antonio back at London Stadium, three months after he suffered serious injuries in a car crash.
I thought it was a really committed performance from the players, they gave everything, which is good to see.
We're disappointed to lose, of course we are, because we had ambition to win. I thought we started the game well, had a couple of opportunities, they came into it and drove us back more than we'd like.
We struggled to really impose ourselves on the game for periods but then we showed character to stick in it and we had our moments again and it ebbed and flowed a little bit.
I think the goal was just disappointing because we feel there was a push on Max and obviously the first goal in that type of game is really important.
Overall I think we didn’t do enough to win the game but I feel for the players, as I thought they deserved something from the game.
We defended well, limited them to few chances and Alphonse Areola has made a couple of saves as well.
Like I said, we want to do more ourselves with the ball and we want to attack better because I think you need to do that at home as well, but against Newcastle it isn't straightforward – they're man-to-man, they're very physical, very intense, so they're waiting to press any backwards pass and not give you that time, so it isn't obvious where solutions are forward but I thought the players tried, they stuck at it and defended really well.
We defended with real commitment, the personality on the pitch was there. I thought the individual performance was strong but at the same time, like I said, I don't think we did enough to win the game, but I'm disappointed for the players because they put such a lot into it that you'd like them to get something from it.
I'm surprised the VAR didn't look at [the build-up to their goal] and I'm surprised the VAR didn't ask the referee to look at it.
I think in real time maybe the referee didn't see it, who knows. But for me, when I watched it back, you can see from Isak's non-celebration, because I think he thinks it's a foul.
So yes, we're disappointed with that clearly because at that moment if you see those moments out and, a bit like the first goal of Chelsea [when Bowen was blocked off moments before Pedro Neto scored the equaliser at Stamford Bridge], it's one of those things that you need a little bit to go for you.
But we're playing against a good team that are fighting for the top six and Europe and the Champions League and I thought again we were committed and were in the game but it was not to be.
I apologise if things aren't happening quicker than we want them to be, but I think when you see the players give everything, that [commitment] is there.
James Ward-Prowse I thought was fantastic, covering such an amount of ground, you know Tomáš and Edson are working hard and Ollie Scarles was [out] on his feet at the end there.
Players are giving everything so I think that's a real strong start point, a strong foundation. We have to have that and then obviously we always want to look to improve.
Today's a bit of a sore one because we wanted to get something from the game but yeah that's life sometimes.
When you see what Michail Antonio has been through you, it puts things into perspective.
So our focus has always been just making sure he's okay and he's on that recovery road and he obviously gets all the support that he needs from us because it's a big thing that he's had to deal with and he's dealt with it in a fantastic way.
