Moyes lauds West Ham defensive effort in crucial win over Watford

David Moyes West Ham TEAMtalk

West Ham boss David Moyes praised his side’s defensive effort after their 3-1 win over relegation rivals Watford at the London Stadium. 

The two sides were level on points ahead of kick-off, meaning the loser was plunged deeper in to trouble.

However three first half goals from the Hammers set them on their way to three points. Michail Antonio, Tomáš Souček and Declan Rice all netted for the home side. Read the full match report here.

Troy Deeney pulled one back for the Hornets just four minutes into the second half, putting West Ham under pressure.

But despite the goal, the East London stayed strong and saw the game out comfortably. And Moyes was keen to give credit to his players for that in his post-match interview.

He told Sky Sports: “We’ve not defended as well as I would have liked, but tonight we did. We stood up to everything we got.

“We’re disappointed with the goal, you always are, but we knew if we conceded one that would give them a bit of encouragement.

“But we also knew that if we got a fourth goal it would have ended the game. We couldn’t quite get that, but out first half was excellent.

“So was the second half. On a defensive side, we’ve done a really good job there as well.”

WEST HAM ALMOST SAFE

The win means West Ham are now six points clear of the relegation zone with just two games left to play. Their superior goal difference compared to those around them puts them in an ever stronger position to stay up.

When asked for his thoughts on the position his side find themselves in, Moyes added: “I’ve got to say, I think we’re in a good position.

“A lot of teams have struggled to get to the points total but I can’t say we won’t. We’ve still got that chance. We have to still do the job.

“Scoring the goals that we have in the last few weeks has helped us. That’s why I was bemoaning us losing goals because I wanted to keep out goal difference as good as we could as well. You just never know when it might be needed.

“The saying was always you need 40 points to stay up, well we’ve got 37 with a couple of games to go. If we can get at least 40 points then we’ll have done it off our own back and we won’t have needed anybody else to do it [for us].”