Head Coach Graham Potter cut a frustrated figure as he spoke following West Ham United’s 1-1 draw with Southampton.
The Irons looked on course to end a five-match winless run in the Premier League when Jarrod Bowen fired the hosts in front within two minutes of the restart, rousing the Claret and Blue Army. But it was the travelling supporters who were the only ones making the noise come full-time after Lesley Ugochukwu volleyed an equaliser in the third minute of added-time.
The already-relegated Saints warranted their share of the spoils from a game in which they matched their hosts for effort, quality and chances created, particularly in the first half, when Kamaldeen Sulemana hit the crossbar.
Potter’s team did improve after half-time and went ahead, but failed to capitalise on their lead and build any momentum, instead allowing Southampton to come back into the game.
That ultimately cost the Londoners dear as Ugochukwu lashed past Alphonse Areola to extend that winless run to six top-flight matches, leaving the Head Coach to reflect on two points lost.
The overwhelming emotion is real disappointment, to be honest.
I’m really disappointed. Obviously conceding late again is another kick, but if we're honest, I think Southampton deserved their equaliser. Our performance wasn't up to the level, it wasn't good enough.
We want to do better. We're frustrated, is the honest truth. We thought we took a step forward against Liverpool, but today it wasn't good enough.
We need to do more, we need to play better, we need to construct our attacks better, we need to create more chances, we need to not give the ball away so cheaply. Lots of things that you can pick the game apart and it wasn't there, not enough players playing well and, in the end, no matter who you are in this league, you can suffer.
We don't know what we're going to get sometimes, because the Premier League offers a different challenge every game.
Away at Anfield is one challenge, then home to Southampton when the onus is on you to attack, the onus is on you to control, the onus is on you to be the protagonist in the game [is another].
That's something that we struggle with and I think you can see that in our results at home. We're suffering here and we have to do better for our supporters because they're so important to us and we're not doing enough.
It's a combination of things.
Like I said, if you give the ball away cheaply, you don't attack well enough, you turn the ball over, you feed their game.
I think they'll (Southampton) be happy with how they played. Like I said, they deserved what they got today, for sure, so that's more a reflection on us and what we need to do better.
But there's too many unenforced errors, too many misplaced passes, too many cheap things and that makes it very difficult to create and to control a game of football in an attacking sense at this level.
There's a lot of things we didn't do well and I think the players want to do it so much, sometimes you can want it too much.
You end up a bit safe. I thought we started the second half better, we scored and there was an opportunity for us to kick on again and use the momentum.
We weren't really able to do it as well as we'd like. Chances-wise it's relatively even but we have to do better than that at home. That's the expectation here, the responsibility here is more than that.
So it's a day for us to say ‘no, this isn't good enough, we need to do better’ and apologise to our supporters because they want us to do more and that's what we have to do.
It's not about that (how hard I and my coaching team are working).
As a Club, we have to do the right things over a period of time. I think that's the challenge for us because that inconsistency can come as a result of that. If we make the right decisions over a period of time, we can build something really special here.
I really believe that. At the moment we're suffering, it's a season where it's been tough, tough for everybody, so we have to keep going through this difficult patch, get through to the summer and reassess everything and see how we can improve.
This is football.
Last week we were positive even though we lost because the performance was what we recognised, second half. Today we're not, we're disappointed, we're frustrated and that's the reality of the competition.
We've got another opportunity at the weekend [at Brighton & Hove Albion], and we have to do better.
