It was almost the perfect day for Flynn Downes.
Called into the West Ham United starting XI to make his full Premier League debut for the team he has supported all his life, and at Liverpool to boot, the 23-year-old was bursting with pride.
And but for the small margins going the home side’s way, Downes would have had a positive result to celebrate on his landmark occasion.
As it was, Darwin Núñez’s 22nd minute header was enough to settle a closely-contested game in Merseyside in the Reds’ favour, despite West Ham’s best efforts, which saw Jarrod Bowen have a a penalty saved, and both Saïd Benrahma and Tomáš Souček go close in the second period.
Downes was naturally disappointed his full debut ended in defeat, but wants to use his experience as motivation to gain these experiences on a regular basis from now onwards.
It’s a tough one to take.
We knew it was going to be a tough place to come to – they are one of the best teams in the world, so we knew we weren’t going to dominate the ball, but we still made chances, especially in the second half.
I thought the boys were unbelievable. We stuck at it, and maybe we should have had more.
It’s football, everybody misses penalties [at one time or another].
Harry Kane missed one the other day, it happens. Jarrod has been unbelievable and he’s just got to stick at it.
Then Tomáš has had that one blocked by Milner and Alisson at the end and that’s the luck we didn’t get tonight.
On another day you get those kind of things and they go in. We had chances, but we just couldn’t get the finish.
I’ll take it all day, being given my full Premier League debut at Anfield.
It’s positive, like everyone knows it’s been a tough start, but I’m just keeping my head down as I’ve said before.
It was good to get out there and it’s unbelievable the Gaffer has put his trust in me here. I just wanted to play the game, it was a mad occasion, but I was trying not to look into that too much, I just wanted to get there and play some football.
Apart from not getting the three points, I loved every minute of it.
It wasn’t my usual position, but the Gaffer told me what he wanted me to do so I just went out there and trusted in my ability.
I just wanted to do a job for the team – it’s Premier League football at Anfield and that’s what dreams are made of.
I’m here to play and I want to contribute. I got off to a tough start, but I’m sticking at it and let’s see where we end up.
I want to stay in the team, it depends where I’m going to play because we’ve got a lot of competition, but it’s all positive and I’m going to keep working.
