West Ham United departed to a chorus of boos at London Stadium after Lesley Ugochukwu’s late, late leveller earned a 1-1 draw for sinking Southampton on Saturday.
Without victory in five games, the Hammers had been hoping to get back to winning ways against the rock-bottom Saints, who are marching straight back down into the EFL Championship.
And following a goalless first half, Jarrod Bowen’s well-taken strike two minutes into the second period certainly put Graham Potter’s men in the driving seat.
But playing with desire and determination in their desperate quest to avoid becoming the Premier League’s worst-ever side, Ugochukwu’s 93rd-minute equaliser moved the visitors – with five games left to play - onto 11 points, matching dismal Derby County’s paltry 2007/08 tally.
“I’m really disappointed with both the performance and the result and I understand the boos,” conceded Potter, who ended his 100th day in charge of the Hammers with only his 13th point from 13 league matches.
“We’re all feeling down and frustrated because we didn’t deserve anything more than a draw. When we’re playing at home we have to be the protagonists, who go on the attack and control the game but we just didn’t do that well enough to win.”
Although Niclas Füllkrug forced a fine early save from Aaron Ramsdale, toothless and disjointed West Ham failed to build on their positive start and, indeed, might even have been trailing at the break after Kamaldeen Sulemana hit the crossbar on the half-hour mark.
The Hammers could not have asked for a better opening to the second period, however, when - on 47 minutes – an incisive counter-attack involving Lucas Paquetá, Mohammed Kudus and Füllkrug enabled Bowen to run at the backtracking Jan Bednarek and Ryan Manning before curling a precision 18-yarder inside the left-hand post.
The top-scoring skipper’s 10th goal of the campaign was as good as it got for West Ham, though, and with the clock ticking down the visitors grew bolder, while a sense of fear and frustration engulfed everyone connected with the Claret and Blue.
“We wanted to protect our lead but safety in numbers provides false security sometimes and, in the end, we became too unstable,” added Potter who made some curious, muddled late substitutions before French midfielder Ugochukwu – on loan from Chelsea – inevitably struck.
“It was a combination of lots of factors as to why we didn’t hold out for a win today. Taking nothing away from Southampton, being one goal down, they’d nothing to lose in those final minutes.
“Overall, it’s been a tough season for everyone. We’re suffering at home and need to find a way to control matches here because you can feel the tension and apprehension around the place.
“Any managerial job in the Premier League is tough and when I arrived I knew what the challenges were,” concluded head coach Potter, who takes the Hammers back to former club Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday (3 pm).
“We’re still struggling at the moment but we’ve got to stick together because I’m convinced we can do some special things here at West Ham United.
“Right now, though, we’re a long way off that - we‘ve got to start by looking at our season as a whole and then begin zooming out to see how we can improve.”
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