West Ham United lost their undefeated away record when they fell to a 1-0 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday, but defender Aaron Cresswell says they cannot dwell on that feeling for long.
Raúl Jiménez’s second half strike was enough to keep the points in the Midlands and end a run for the Hammers which had taken in seven games in all competitions.
Cresswell conceded his side hadn’t reached the heights they have scaled so far this term but is confident they can bounce back when they head to Rapid Vienna for a UEFA Europa League tie in midweek.
“We found it really frustrating,” the No3 admitted. “I thought we had a good spell for the first 15, 20 minutes, but after that, credit to Wolves – they played some fantastic stuff and we couldn’t really get going.
“We created a couple of chances but we didn’t really have that edge to create more.
“They were rotating a lot, getting their two wide men in, which was causing us problems at times. We were getting caught between whether to go in or whether to stay.
“The manager changed a few things at half-time and altered a few tactics, and, look, it’s frustrating on our part, certainly with the start to the season we’ve had.
“But we can’t get down on one defeat, we’ve got to get going again.”
West Ham are back in action quickly with that trip to Vienna, in a spell which will see them play 13 games by New Year’s Day.
Cresswell is sure they’re up to that challenge, though, having already negotiated a hectic start to the campaign.
“We’ve had that challenge over the previous six weeks too,” he explained. “The main thing is we’ve got to be mentally prepared and mentally right, and recover as best we can in the short space of time.
“We want to be playing in these competitions and challenge ourselves against these teams.”