With the game racing towards a goalless finish, Tomas Soucek scored in the dying minutes to secure an unlikely victory for the visitors.
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West Ham United had to dig deep to register an important Europa League win over TSC Backa Topola on Thursday night. There was not much in the game, as both teams cancelled each other with a solid defensive display. With the game racing towards a goalless finish, Tomas Soucek scored in the dying minutes to secure an unlikely victory for the visitors. The three points helped the Hammers seal a place in the knockout stage of the competition.
However, West Ham United still have something to play for in the group, as the top spot is up for grabs. After the match, David Moyes was happy with the result but there were issues he found with his side’s first-half display. “It is strange that I’m spending St Andrew’s Day in Serbia but, nevertheless, I’ll spread the word over here as well! To me, it looked as if it would be nil-nil and we weren’t going to score because we weren’t creative enough and we didn’t do enough,” Moyes, quoted on the club’s website, said after the match.
He added: “They played five at the back and made it really hard, but I was more disappointed with the first half because we gave them a few chances, which I didn’t like. But, look, as it went on, we limited them to fewer opportunities and we looked like, if we got a chance, we might take one. We got there in the end. It’s another away win in Europe in the bag and I’ll take that and go back home with it.”
Another thing which Moyes did not like was the delivery into the box by his players. “I’ve got to say it was a great ball in by Maxi. It was one of the really disappointing things tonight that I thought the quality of our balls into the box was so poor. Our crossing attempts, whether it be from wide players or full-backs, didn’t come off. I’m not making excuses, but the balls we’re using in this competition are so light and if you have a light ball with a pitch which isn’t so good, it doesn’t make it so easy, but I would never use it as an excuse, but it’s a reason maybe for the lack of quality at times and not putting in as many good balls. It was a great ball and Tomáš has got six or seven goals now. He’s getting in the right position and he did it again tonight and we’re thankful he did,” he explained.
Since West Ham are heading into a busy period in the season, Moyes wants to utilise his squad to the maximum and give opportunity to everyone. “We’re finding our way. We wanted to give players who haven’t played chances to play. We did that at Olympiacos and we’ve done it tonight, because I want to keep the squad together and keep them fit. We’re going into a really busy period and I’m going to need some of them to play at different times, so it gives me a chance to see how they are and how they’re performing,” he explained.
He added: “Some of them are going to have to step up and play better, and we know that. It’s a bit easier to be critical when we win than when we lose and we need to play better than we did tonight. We had some good moments at times, but we never really punctured or threatened them and got our centre forwards in positions to score, so that’s a disappointment.”
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