Captain Jarrod Bowen insists he and his teammates must roll up their sleeves and fight their way up the Premier League table following Friday night’s 2-1 defeat at Leeds United.
Mateus Fernandes’ first goal for the Hammers in the 90th minute, assisted by Bowen, came too little, too late, as early strikes from Brenden Aaronson and Joe Rodon ultimately earned the hosts the full share of the spoils under the Elland Road lights.
The result leaves West Ham United 19th in the standings ahead of the rest of the weekend’s action, with just one win and one draw from their nine matches so far, and Bowen acknowledged the tough situation the team find themselves in.
“Obviously, when you’re second-bottom in the league and you’ve won one game all season, the feeling is low,” he said. “I think the only way that’s going to change is if we as players step up, show some character, roll our sleeves up and get ready for the fight.
“It’s easy to say, and it’s hard to do sometimes, but we have to do that. I think we need that week in, week out, because in my mind that’s the only way. I’ve told the players that we need to pull our finger out now, because this is the Premier League, and no-one’s going to give us anything.
“We have to face up to the reality of where we are, and get results. We’ve done that over the years, but we’re not doing that now, and we’re not playing well, so we need to change that.
“As much as you can speak to each other, and we do have open conversations, I think it has to come from within. I think we all have the hunger, but the table shows we’re not doing enough, and we have to turn things around.”
In terms of the way the game went in West Yorkshire, Bowen was frustrated with the nature of the two goals conceded by the Irons, and by the fine margins that saw a first-half Lucas Paquetá strike ruled out for offside.
Two home games lie in store for West Ham next in the calendar, against Newcastle and Burnley, and the England international is already focusing his attention on a pair of positive results and gaining some momentum back at London Stadium.
Bowen added: “I thought we started alright against Brentford on Monday night, and we wanted to do similar here, but the way we defended for their first goal was really, really poor.
“We nearly got back into it, when I had a chance, but then we conceded from a corner again, which is really disappointing.
“We felt like if we scored a goal we’d get some confidence, and we had one that was disallowed. We eventually did score, but it was too late, so overall there’s a lot of frustration.
“As I said, we have to understand and accept the situation we’re in, and work hard to change it. We have two games ahead of us at home. We haven’t been great at home, but now’s the time to roll up our sleeves and get the fans behind us.”
