- West Ham United were beaten 3-0 by Southampton at London Stadium on Sunday
- Next up is the visit of newly-promoted Middlesbrough on Saturday 1 October
Winston Reid says West Ham United need to ‘dig deep’ following a 3-0 home Premier League defeat by Southampton.
The Hammers’ indifferent start to 2016/17 continued with a deserved defeat at London Stadium, where the Saints secured victory through goals from Charlie Austin, Dusan Tadic and substitute James Ward-Prowse.
Centre-half Reid and his colleagues have now conceded 16 goals in just six matches, losing five of them to slip to 18th in the table ahead of next weekend’s visit of newly-promoted Middlesbrough.
Speaking after another disappointing afternoon for those of a Claret and Blue persuasion, the No2 was refreshingly honest, admitting the Hammers need to give even more effort if they are to turn their talent into points.
“When you lose you, you can always do more,” said Reid. “We’ve played against good teams so far and we need to work a lot harder to get a bit of luck on our side.
“You could see out there that they worked harder than us and they got a good result.”
West Ham arguably edged the opening 40-odd minutes, but went in a goal down at the break when Ryan Bertrand got in behind the back four and crossed for Austin to hook home first-time.
An error in midfield after the break allowed Austin to play in Tadic, who rounded the otherwise impressive Adrian to tap home, before Ward-Prowse converted Steven Davis’s cross in added time at the end of a forgettable game.
“You can say that we aren’t getting the breaks, as in the first half there really wasn’t a lot in it and they had one chance and scored a goal,” Reid observed.
“We went in at half-time with our heads held high and said we would go again in the second half, but we just couldn’t get the opening and they hit us on the break and scored a couple of goals.”
So, Reid was asked, what do West Ham need to do to turn around their alarming run of form and start climbing the Premier League table?
“To get our confidence back, we need to work hard,” he explained. “We need to dig deep and work a lot harder.
“We’re six games in and we’ve only got three points, so we need to dig deeper, produce a better performance and get a win.
“The most important thing for us now is picking up that next three points.”