Fans want to see actions rather than hear or read words when the football team they love, follow and devote time, energy and passion to support week in, week out, are not producing the desired performances or results.
For the Claret and Blue Army, it has been a frustrating and disappointing time to support West Ham United, and those feelings of frustration and disappointment grew with Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League defeat by Crystal Palace at London Stadium.
The Hammers fell behind to Jean-Philippe Mateta’s header, but tactical switches from Head Coach Graham Potter led to a Jarrod Bowen equaliser early in the second half and a period of dominance during which it looked like the Irons could go on to record a first home win of the 2025/26 season.
With their team on top, the Claret and Blue Army roared their team forward again and again, but the Irons could not find a way past Dean Henderson for a second time, Palace broke away and Tyrick Mitchell volleyed the Eagles to victory.
For Potter, it was a difficult day, and the Head Coach empathised with the fans who are so desperate to see his team return to winning ways and start climbing the Premier League table, and insisted the only way to turn the Hammers’ fortunes around is to stay united and stay positive, no matter how hard that feels at this present moment.
It’s a tough period, there’s no getting away from it, with the results, especially here.
It’s a tough one for the team, it’s a tough one for the supporters, who I thought were brilliant with us today, to be honest. I thought the way they pulled with the team in the second half was fantastic. I feel for them because it’s tough.
The scoreline is what it is and we’re disappointed with that of course. I thought we started the game quite well, but then struggled to get some pressure and then they found spaces and getting their pocket players in, and five against four in the last line destabilised us a little bit.
But we tried to change it and we did at half-time, it affected it a little bit and we were a lot better. I thought the first part of the second half was really positive.
It’s just disappointing that we conceded and we probably just huffed and puffed a little bit at that point.
It’s this level and at the moment it’s not enough and we have to face up to that.
We have to do more, we have to work harder, we have to find a solution to it. We have to be more stable defensively and offensively and find more ways to look stronger as a team. That’s where the work is now.
We know we have to keep working. You have to face these moments up when it’s tough and it is tough at the moment.
I said to the players, 'we have to stick together, work hard, keep on working on finding the solution and come out of this tough period stronger for it'. That’s the aim now.
It’s true [that we have to remain positive], but at the same time we’re all hurting.
We have to accept that, we have to accept the pain that we’re all feeling. It’s been tough, that’s for sure. That’s why I think the only way we can do it is to get through and stick together and try to find a way to be more stable, to be more solid, to win matches.
That’s what we’re here for and at the moment we’re not doing that as well as we’d like.
It never is [all doom and gloom], but in the end it isn’t enough for us. The only thing we can do is understand everybody’s hurt, understand the frustration and keep moving forward.
