Academy Director Tony Carr gave an honest assessment of West Ham United's 1-0 Barclays U18 Premier League defeat by Blackburn Rovers at Little Heath on Saturday
A tight game saw both sides struggle to gain a foothold long enough to dominate proceedings, but West Ham were denied a positive results by missing a succession of good chances. Blackburn then punished their hosts by scoring the only goal of the game.
Nana Boakye-Yiadom and Kieran Sadlier both failed to take advantage of decent openings and Carr admitted the Hammers' profligacy had cost them.
"Unfortunately we lost 1-0," said Carr. "The game was incredibly tight and it could have gone either way. We created three very good chances before they took the lead but were unable to take them.
"Nana Boakye-Yiadom had two good chances, as did Kieran Sadlier, but like so often happens in football they hit us on the break and got the goal that mattered."
Carr also believes that the way in which the game was played did not help his side, describing it as a 'dour' affair.
"It was a dour game," he continued. "Both teams didn't allow their opponents any space and the players had very little time on the ball.
"If I am being honest it wasn't pretty to watch. The game lacked any kind of flair and we wasted a lot of good opportunities, but I suppose at least we did create them."
The best chance of the game fell to Sadlier but the Republic of Ireland forward, who has been in good form recently, failed to make it count, Carr believes the Hammers taking the lead would have changed the outcome of the game.
"The best chance of the game fell to Kieran Sadlier. He went through on goal one-on-one with the goalkeeper and he should have done better than he did.
"If we had taken that chance or one of others I think we would have gone on to win the game but we didn't and we got punished."
Next up for the Under-18s is another home game against Bolton Wanderers. Carr, coach Nick Haycock and the West Ham players will all be hoping for an improvement.
"For me the most worrying thing from the game was not the defeat, but it was the fact we were not clinical enough in front of goal.
"We are always going to create chances because of the way we play but to not take them was very disappointing. We lacked quality, coolness and composure in front of goal."
Under-18s: Baxter, Alexander, Shaw, Harney, Onnariase, Miles (Bywater 70), Makasi, Cullen (T.Tombides 45), Mavila (Nasha 75), Sadlier, Boakye-Yiadom