Paul Konchesky was frustrated with the manner in which West Ham Women started their 2-0 loss to Liverpool Women on Sunday, calling the uncharacteristic approach “unacceptable” ahead of their London derby with Tottenham Hotspur.
An insipid start to the match saw West Ham staring down an ultimately insurmountable two-goal deficit inside the opening 20 minutes, with Ceri Holland inflicting the first before the third minute for the hosts and Katie Stengel adding her finishing touch shortly after.
A much-improved second-half performance followed with decent chances at goal but Liverpool’s sturdy defence prevailed, and West Ham were served their fifth league defeat under Konchesky this season.
And the 41-year-old did not hide his frustration at his team’s approach to the game in his post-match assessment.
“We started the game really poorly, and to concede those goals was unacceptable,” he told the Hammers media team. “We don’t usually start matches like that so it was frustrating.
“The way that the first goal came about wasn’t great, and the second goal came from us losing possession in a sloppy area. There are plenty of learning curves for us to take into the next game and we need to make sure that we cut these bits out of our game.”
He added: “I said to the girls at half time about the first half performance not being acceptable – the changes that we made helped with us getting a lot more control and really brought the game to them.”
The result leaves West Ham sitting sixth in the league table, level on points with Aston Villa and just six points off fourth-placed Manchester City.
But there is little in the way of denying that the defeat represents a missed opportunity to capitalise on a good run of form and fire the Hammers into a position to push the top sides.
Hammers next play host in the London derby against seventh-place Spurs and while Konchesky considered Sunday’s performance an aberration from previous displays, cutting out those foibles will be critical if West Ham are to bridge the gap to the top with a win over their local rivals.
“A London derby gives it that little bit extra, but we will need to make sure we start the match a lot better and more like we have been over the course of the season,” Konchesky said.
“We will give it our all and hopefully we will come out with a positive result.”
West Ham Women kick-off at 2pm on 14 December against Tottenham Hotspur.
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