Graham Potter confessed he was pleased by his team's organisation and determination, despite falling at the first hurdle in last night's FA Cup defeat at Villa Park.
The Hammers are out of this year's FA Cup before third round weekend has barely begun after allowing an early lead to turn into a 2-1 defeat in Friday night's, all Premier League FA Cup extravaganza.Yet Potter, taking his first game less than 48 hours after being announced as the replacement for Julen Lopetegui insisted he saw enough from his tropps to feel confident about the second half of the season.
"The first half was really good," he began. "We scored a good goal, we were organised defensively, showed a great attitude, togetherness on the pitch, good communication, good understanding of what we're trying to do, carried a threat and were probably a little bit unlucky not to get a second goal.
"Aston Villa certainly didn't carry any threat in the first half. Obviously losing Niclas was a blow, and then Crysencio as well at half-time, probably affected our attacking intent. They stepped up as well I think and pushed us back probably a little bit more than we'd have liked, but the boys dug in."
And there was plenty of praise for young Ollie Scarles, who earned the TV team's Man of the Match award having produced a tremendous performance.
" I thought he was really, really good," confirmed Potter. "He was playing at a difficult place and dealing with Leon Bailey and the overload down that side, so there were lots of positives.
"I couldn't have asked for anything more from the preparation of the players, how they applied themselves, how they were open to the ideas and how they tried to carry them out was really, really good.
"It was just some executions that of course we're going to get better with but overall I think there were positives to the game. It just doesn't feel very nice at the moment because we're out and we've lost, but we have to stick to the principles, think about those and dust ourselves down and prepare for Fulham, which is a big game."
You may watch Potter's post-match interview in full, below.
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