James Ward-Prowse admitted West Ham United fell below their usual standards in Sunday’s 1-1 Emirates FA Cup third round draw with Bristol City.
The Irons will need to win a replay at the Robins’ Ashton Gate home after Tommy Conway cancelled out Jarrod Bowen’s early opener on a frustrating afternoon.
The No7 spoke of his disappointment at not being able to get the job done at the first time of asking, but also stated the positive that his team has a second chance to make sure of progression to the fourth round.
“Of course both teams would have preferred to settle it in one, but that’s the way it goes,” he said. “We’re still in the competition and have the chance to go through, but we’re disappointed with the way we played today.
“I think we started the game really well, penned them in and showed our quality early on, but after that we seemed to drop our standards overall and they deservedly got back in the game.
“Overall it’s a disappointing result. We’d have liked to do it today but we’ve got to go again now.
“The positive is we still have the chance to go through to the next round and still a chance to win silverware.
“That’s the main thing and If it takes another game to do it, then so be it. Hopefully it will be worth it in the end.”
Especially frustrating for the Hammers was that they took a fourth minute lead thanks to Bowen’s 14th goal of the season, yet failed to build on that.
Robins stopper Max O’Leary kept out efforts from Pablo Fornals and Tomáš Souček but the next goal came from Conway’s breakaway strike, and neither team were then able to land the decisive blow.
“It’s always helpful getting that early goal because it gives you that momentum going forward, but if you underestimate any team you play at any level, you always open yourselves up for the consequences,” Ward-Prowse added.
“The goalkeeper made an excellent save [to prevent it going 2-0 after 15 minutes], and then I think the game would look and feel a lot different.
“It goes to show whether it’s a Premier League team or a team from the Championship playing a good style of football, they can punish you at any moment and they did that today.
“They outplayed us at times and they are a good footballing team. We showed glimpses of quality, but overall not enough by our standards and how we’ve been this season to win the game. I think a draw was a fair result.”
