Tomáš Souček had mixed feelings after returning to action for West Ham United with a goal in Tuesday’s 3-1 pre-season defeat at Rangers.
The Czech Republic midfielder made his first appearance of the summer at Ibrox Stadium, coming off the substitutes’ bench early in the second half with the Hammers already trailing 2-0 and quickly seeing his team concede a third just minutes later.
Souček pulled one back by bundling in from a Jarrod Bowen corner with 20 minutes to play, and was naturally happy to find the net in Glasgow, but also conceded that he and his teammates will need to up their levels significantly by the start of the Premier League season in two-and-a-half weeks’ time.
Away from Ibrox, the No28 had words of support for former West Ham teammate Sébastien Haller, who it was revealed has been diagnosed with a tesiticular tumour while in training with his new club Borussia Dortmund.
I’m happy to get a few minutes on the pitch because it’s very important in pre-season.
I had only done running sessions at Rush Green and another few sessions with the team, but these minutes are very important for me and one goal I something extra for my confidence so that’s good in front of our fans.
The result was disappointing but we need to be pushing in the pre-season to get ready for the season.
For sure we weren’t good enough tonight.
We had a really hard session with the manager and our legs are still heavy and it was seen on the pitch for 90 minutes, so we need to get ready because the level needs to be up.
But we still have more than two weeks and that’s good and another two friendly games and each one will be very important before the first game of the season.
It’s very good to be back with the boys.
Holiday time is very nice with the family, but I miss football, I miss the guys and I miss West Ham after a few days.
So it’s good to be back on the pitch and hopefully on the weekend we will go on the winning way and we will continue along.
My wife and I are expecting another child and it will be soon.
It’s in three months and we are looking forward, all of us, so I hope it will be very happy at home and I can transfer that onto the pitch.
I saw the news about Séb and I text him because he’s a strong guy but everyone supports him – all the players and West Ham fans.
All of us really liked him and still like him as he’s had an incredible career and is also an incredible guy, so I just wish him good luck and wish that all will be good in the future.
