Matt Jarvis held mixed emotions after Saturday’s 3-0 reverse at Arsenal.
The 28-year-old winger was back in Sam Allardyce’s starting XI for a Barclays Premier League fixture for the first time since November, but was unable to help his team from falling to defeat.
He was frustrated to concede the opening goal right on half-time, when it looked as though a string of fine saves from Adrian was going to get West Ham through to the interval level, and said the Gunners’ goals came at bad times.
“It’s mixed for me really,” he said. “I was delighted to get back in the team and play, but gutted with the final result and really wish we didn’t concede right on half time.
“That knocked us. Going in to half time at 0-0 would have been great and allowed us to set our stall out for the second half, but it was a great finish from Giroud.
“One of the things we wanted to do was get in behind, put crosses in and create chances. For spells we did that and it would have been nice to get the first goal and see what happened from there.”
Jarvis was involved in two of the Hammers’ best chances of the afternoon, crossing for Kevin Nolan to force a good save from David Ospina in the first half, before volleying over the bar after half time.
He continued: “Kevin struck it really well, it was just a great save and it would have been his 100th goal which would have been great for him.
“For my chance, it got headed out, I managed to chest it and had to take the volley as quickly as I could and unfortunately I just skied it.
“This is a tough place to come to, but when you look at the 3-0 scoreline it looks like a bad day at the office. I think we did well in spells though, and that’s what we need to take into next week’s game against Sunderland.”
With just one of the division’s top seven to face in the closing nine games of the season, Jarvis is confident the Hammers can end strongly to push back up the table.
He explained: “We need to get the win on Saturday and kick-start us for the back end of the season and push back up as high as we can.”