Angelo Ogbonna has labelled summer signing Javier Hernandez as a ‘really important’ player for Slaven Bilic’s side after his brace against Southampton on Saturday.
The Mexico international hit goals either side of half-time during the 3-2 defeat as he opened and subsequently doubled his tally in Claret and Blue.
While the Hammers came out on the losing side however, defender Angelo Ogbonna was full of praise for his team, and especially Hernandez.
“At the end it was so disappointing, but I am also very proud of the team because we played really good with ten men,” said the Italian who was a last minute stand-in for Winston Reid who was injured in the warm-up.
“It was a huge effort. We showed our character out there. We wanted to do better than last week when we played away at Manchester United and conceded four goals. We said we cannot give up this game and we have to show that we are not lazy on the pitch.”
Ogbonna then added, speaking of Hernandez: “The first game was a really good test for him. Chicharito has shown his character a lot and he won’t give up. He is really important for us.
“There are a lot of positive things to come out of this game. I thought we played better than them definitely and were down by one man for 60 minutes.”
