Declan Rice believes West Ham should have had a two or three goal lead at half-time against Leicester on Sunday if only their finishing had not let them down.
Rice was relieved to get a point after Craig Dawson's injury-time equaliser but he was disappointed that the score was level at the break. Jarrod Bowen had opened the scoring with a fine finish after a delightful Issa Diop pass but West Ham were unable to add to the scoreline before the break.
The Hammers looked to be heading into half-time 1-0 up only for Aaron Cresswell to needlessly handball in the box providing Youri Tielemans the chance to equalise from the spot.
"Obviously, it was a sloppy penalty for us to give away, and in the second half they were really on top, but we’ve been working really hard on our set-pieces and Daws [Craig Dawson] is incredible in the air. It was a good point in the end," Rice told the West Ham website.
Tielemans' equaliser was infuriating for Rice particularly as he thought the Hammers should have been more than one goal ahead at the time.
"In my opinion, we could have been two or three up in the first half and the game would have looked very different. The penalty swings in their favour and then it’s a game of two halves," he said.
Rice added: "It was a great goal by Jarrod again, but we need to start taking our chances and putting the game to bed."
Rice explained what the difference was after the break and why Leicester were able to come back into the game and dominate for large periods of the second period.
"In the first half we were so compact in the middle. [Kiernan] Dewsbury-Hall really started to pick the ball up in the second half, in that little space he occupied behind me on the right-hand side, picking up little pockets of space, and Harvey Barnes was flying on the left, which we’d nullified in the first half.
"This is football. Things can happen. It goes round and round. Even though we were 2-1 down, we started believing we could bring players on and that we could get a point.
"We really stopped them [in the first half]. They were getting really frustrated and the fans were getting on top of them. I just wish we could’ve made a bit more of the chances that we got."
After leaving it late Rice was relieved Dawson was able to rescue a draw for his side and described it as a 'good point' that will help the Hammers achieve their aims for the season.
"Eight points in our last eight games doesn’t sound the best, but we’re still where we are in the table. There’s still a long way to go and we need to be positive," he added.
"There’s one objective for us, and that’s to finish as high as possible."
