Andy Carroll admitted that West Ham United were well below par in defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor on Sunday.
The Hammers gave themselves a mountain to climb after falling 2-0 down to goals from Chris Wood and Dwight McNeil before the break – and it was a summit they couldn’t reach even after the introduction of Carroll and Grady Diangana at half-time.
Carroll went desperately close to halving the deficit in the final minute when Tom Heaton touched his header onto the crossbar, but he acknowledged that Burnley were more than deserving winners on the day.
“It was very disappointing, a poor game for everyone,” he said. “We’re much better than that and I thought we could have done better from start to finish.
“Second half we created a few more chances, but it was disappointing not to get many before then and obviously see them create so many.
“Luckily we had Lukasz in net and he’s been great all season. He kept us in it.
“I had a couple of chances, it was a great save from Tom Heaton. Cress put a good ball in and he saved it well. I was unlucky there, but overall it’s just a bad day.
“We're a good team and we've had a lot of players out injured. When they come back it will be a big boost, but we have a good team and we’ve just got to put this behind us and move on."