Slaven Bilic has praised his players’ performances after the Hammers finished off their Austrian leg of pre-season with victory over fellow Londoners Fulham.
Manuel Lanzini opened the scoring early on, before Ashley Fletcher pounced upon some poor keeping from Fulham keeper David Button to make it 2-0 before the break. Ryan Sessegnon pulled a goal back for Slavisa Jokanovic’s side late on, but the Hammers were able to hold out for the victory.
Speaking after the win, manager Slaven Bilic said he was happy that the players were able to put into practice what they had been doing on the training ground.
“It was a good game for us. Again we treated it as a training test. We trained this morning before the game and it was quite hot, but we wanted to stick to our schedule.” he said, before adding: “We played with two teams each half – only Josh Cullen and Moses Makasi had to play a bit more.
“But it was good, against a decent side, especially in the first half, we played aggressively, and did exactly the things we have been working on this last week in Austria, like pressing, taking the ball, and quick reactions.”
Bilic also added that is was a good confidence boost for his side for score their first goals of pre-season following the drab 0-0 draw with Sturm Graz II earlier in the week.
“It’s good to have scored two goals, to have created good chances, and to win against a team who could have been in the Premier League next season.”
The Hammers will now travel to Germany for the second leg of their pre-season tour, and will take on Werder Bremen in back to back fixtures before the end of the month.
