West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen was frustrated after a humbling 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the weekend, and admitted he and the team know that things have to get better in all areas of the pitch in the remainder of the season. 

“It’s not good enough and obviously, when you go down to ten men, it makes it harder again,” Bowen told Premier League Productions. “Going in 1-0 down at the break with eleven men, we knew we would still have been in the game, but with ten, obviously it was even more difficult. But those are the circumstances that we were in, and it was important at 1-0, it’s only one goal. They’ve obviously got a man more, but it’s about being clever and not conceding, but we didn’t manage to do that and in the end we conceded two and it could have been more so it’s frustrating, for sure.

“The start of the game was quite open. We had a couple of chances, including one that they cleared off the line from Lucas [Paquetá]. They obviously scored the goal, which we’re disappointed with, as it was quite an easy goal to concede. But, like I said, when it’s with ten men, it’s even more difficult.”

After a disappointing first-half, the Hammers were still in the match. However, it all took a turn when Edson Alvarez was sent off after receiving a second yellow just before half-time. Meaning the Hammers had to play the whole second half with ten men.

Bowen said: “I think the first ten minutes of the second half we were in their half and we were sticking in there, and then there was a deflection for the second goal as it came off a defender’s head, which was a real sucker blow. But it was important then not to just give up. It was to just try and keep fighting as hard as we could, but ultimately we didn’t do that.

“We need to scrub up [our play in the final third] for sure, and that’s something we know,” he continued. “Myself as an attacking player, I’m part of that and I know that as well. Like I said, defensively, we’ve done well in the first half. Obviously, we conceded a goal, but we still limited them, but we have work to do going forward in the final third.

“I think we’ve got to accept the defeat and understand the feeling and how we’re all feeling now, we have to go forward and not want this feeling again,” he concluded. “We’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of defeats by a lot of goals, so we need to look at ourselves as players. I think that’s a given, but I think we’ve got to accept this feeling, accept it today, move on tomorrow and in the last game before the international break we have to put it right and that’s it.”