Slaven Bilic has praised his West Ham side despite Saturday’s loss to Southampton, stating his side showed plenty of ‘character and quality’ throughout the narrow defeat at St Mary’s.
Bilic’s side succumbed to a narrow 3-2 defeat to the Saints, losing out only to a last minute penalty from Charlie Austin.
The visitors trailed by 2-0 and were down to ten men just before half time – with Marko Arnautovic seeing red on only his third West Ham appearance – however a brace from Javier Hernandez levelled the score going into the dying moments.
Moments away from securing their first point of the season, Pablo Zabaleta produced a clumsy challenge in the box to give the Saints all three points, ensuring the Hammers left the South coast empty handed.
Despite the result however, Bilic says he is proud of his side for their performance.
“We showed character and we showed quality and we showed that we could cope with ten men and we could score two goals and stop them from scoring,” Bilic observed.
“To be fair, we started off so good, we had two or three chances to take the lead and we didn’t, so we were very disappointed to lose in the end.”
The big turning point in the game came just past the half hour mark after Marko Arnautovic was sent off for a reckless elbow on Jack Stephens, a move that Bilic admitted made victory a difficult target for the Hammers.
“It’s very hard to play with ten men, especially as we were already one goal down. We then conceded a second goal and it was difficult to come back. On paper it was very difficult to keep it to 2-0, but we showed character and commitment and that we are fit enough to do it for each other.
“As soon as we equalised, we defended how you are meant to defend, very deep, and we waited for our chances and we got them. It was our gameplan at half-time and unfortunately we conceded a third one late on.”
