West Ham United manager David Moyes spoke to West Ham TV following Tuesday evening’s 1-0 Premier League win over Watford.
Jarrod Bowen's second half goal earned West Ham United all three points as the east Londoners climbed back into the top four.
The boss discussed a hard-fought victory, goalscorer Bowen’s outstanding recent form, the impact of substitute Manuel Lanzini, and the heartwarming tributes paid to Isla Caton at London Stadium…
We had to be patient to get the job done
We knew we needed to be patient. I didn’t really enjoy how we played in this game, but I think Watford made it hard for us. We got better as the game went on and Lanzini made a difference when he came on. Even for the goal, it was one of the first passes to pass through the lines, and Jarrod turned and gave himself a chance in a shooting position.
We very rarely got any good build up, and we had worked on it, and we had tried. We knew what we were going to face so it wasn’t as though we hadn’t done anything towards it, we tried to do it.
I think tonight, Declan wasn’t Declan and a few others were a bit like that as well. When we’ve been a bit down recently then we’ve had Declan to rely on but, tonight, it wasn’t his night.
We’ve got options. Maybe not as many as I’d like, but at the moment we’re trying to get Vlasic more time and I want him to get more opportunities. But I just felt the games have been tight and I just didn’t see in those games the right moments to give him that chance again. We want to introduce him and we’re trying to get one or two of the other players more playing time, but tonight it was a case of trying to get the job done, get the three points, and get through the 90 minutes.
Jarrod Bowen has been stepping up
I think Jarrod is the one that’s standing up at the moment. In the early part of the season it was Michail Antonio getting the goals and they were coming easy for him. Even Said Benrahma, his levels earlier in the season saw him getting some goals. But Jarrod is the one who is stepping up at the moment, and we’ve been needing him.
We’re now looking at even more points
We’ve won the last two games and not in great fashion. But nobody really remembers a lot about what is done, and we’ve got the wins and we’ve got the points.
We’ve got 40 points, which is always a total you felt you had to get to make sure you were a Premier League team. We don’t look at it that way anymore, but I’ve got to say that it’s still a good start. Now we want to try and get the points total that we see us stay in and around the top teams.
I said at the start of the season that, last season, we were two points short of the Champions League, and I think the target now in my head is now quick can we get to 50 points. Then it’s 60 points, and so on.
There’s a bit of climbing Mount Everest in there. We’re only at Base Camp One at the minute and now we’ve got the hard bit to go.
I felt the respect for Isla Caton from our fans
Tonight’s moments for Isla showed us that there’s more important things in life than football. Sadly, a little girl has lost her life, but the respect to her from the supporters was immense and I hope the family felt it as well.