‘One of our poorer performances’ - West Ham boss David Moyes says he’s ‘thrilled’ with Newcastle draw
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Published 19/02/2022 at 16:20 GMT
Having gone ahead thanks to a bullet header from Craig Dawson just after the half-hour mark, West Ham were pegged back when a defensive mix-up allowed Joe Willock to prod the ball past Lukasz Fabianski. Speaking after the match, David Moyes admitted that a point was about as much as the Hammers deserved.
David Moyes was less than delighted with West Ham's performance
Image credit: Getty Images
David Moyes has admitted that he was “thrilled” to take a point against Newcastle in Saturday’s early kick off at the London Stadium, even though West Ham have lost further ground in the race for the top four.
Having gone ahead thanks to a bullet header from Craig Dawson just after the half-hour mark, the Hammers were pegged back when a defensive mix-up allowed Joe Willock to prod the ball past Lukasz Fabianski. Declan Rice failed to clear the initial ball into the area, allowing Willock to ghost between Dawson and Ryan Fredericks to score.
Speaking after the match, Moyes admitted that a point was about as much as the Hammers deserved. “I was thrilled to take a point because we didn’t play well,” he said. “[It was] one of our poorer performances.
“Sometimes when it’s not going well you need to make the most of it. We keep adding to the points tally, hopefully it could be an important one at the end of the season.”
While West Ham remain fifth in the Premier League, they have now played one more game than Manchester United in fourth. They trail Ralf Rangnick’s side by a point, with their top-four rivals travelling to Elland Road to face Leeds on Sunday.
What’s more, the Hammers are currently three points ahead of Arsenal having played three games more than the north Londoners. This was their second consecutive draw, with Dawson salvaging a point against Leicester last weekend.
Nonetheless, when asked what the Newcastle draw means for his ambitions of qualifying for the Champions League, Moyes was keen to keep things in perspective.
“It is a long time since journalists talked about West Ham in a top-four chase,” he said. “We want to be that club and we enjoy the journalists talking about us in that way.
“Today was not a good performance. It was good we took a point because on another day maybe we wouldn’t have, but if we want to hang in there with the big boys we are going to have to win games like this.
“For me, strangely enough, I’m more interested in our getting back to a level of performance than points. I want us to get back to being a really good, exciting, front-foot team playing well.
“I know if I get those performances we will get more points. At the moment I am scraping a few here and there but I cannot say I am really enjoying it.”
Speaking to BT Sport after the final whistle, Dawson also conceded that West Ham were not at their best. “It was a game of few chances,” he said. “We took the lead, so to let it slip just before half time was disappointing.
“For the goal it was a great ball in from [Aaron Cresswell]. Set piece goals are a strong point to our game and we work hard on them. It’s nice to chip in.
“They had a couple of chances [in the run up to the equaliser], we didn’t quite clear our lines and we got punished in the end.
“The talk at half time was to keep going, keep working hard and we needed to get at them a little bit more. But Newcastle are on a good run and a point was probably fair in the end.
“It’s disappointing to pick up a couple of draws in a row, but they are two good sides so we’ll get back to the training ground, work hard and see what happens next week."
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