As West Ham United suffers 3-2 defeat at the hands of in-form Aston Villa
By West Ham United
Midfielder Mateus Fernandes cut a frustrated figure after West Ham United were pegged back twice from leading positions before eventually falling to a narrow 3-2 defeat at the hands of in-form Aston Villa.
Following a number of passionate tributes to Hammers great Billy Bonds MBE before-kick-off, our No18 got us off to the perfect start when he nicked possession off Ezri Konsa deep in away territory before finishing past Marco Bizot within 30 seconds.
A Dinos Mavropanos own-goal drew Villa level before the ten-minute mark, but Jarrod Bowen’s close-range poke meant we went into half-time 2-1 up, and on course for a fourth win of the season that would have lifted us out of the Premier League’s bottom three.
Two Morgan Rogers strikes in the second 45 though – the second of which came just eleven minutes from the death – ultimately turned the tide in the Villans’ favor, and Fernandes was left ruing what might have been upon the full-time whistle.
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It was my first goal here, and it was a good start for us, so it was a nice moment
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He said: “We are very disappointed. Again, we were winning and didn’t score the third goal, and we gave life to them.
“Of course, they are a very good team, and their third goal was very good for them, but we need to change. I think we need to fight more to score the third goal, because it’s difficult when you go into the second half in that sort of situation.
“It was similar against Brighton last week, when we conceded late on. Sometimes, you can feel that you need to take the chance to score.
“We need to keep working hard to improve, because we want points and we know that every one is important for us.”
Despite his and his team’s disappointment, Fernandes insisted there were positives to take from the match, including the several chances created against a team sitting third in the table, and his goal, which was his second for the Club and first at London Stadium.
The 21-year-old is looking forward to going again when the Hammers travel to second-place Manchester City next Saturday, ahead of a busy festive schedule and two home clashes against Fulham and Brighton & Hove Albion between Christmas and New Year.
He added: “It was my first goal here, and it was a good start for us, so it was a nice moment.
“Overall, we are playing well, we are shooting and creating lots of chances, but we just need to defend better at times so we can get over the line. We need to fight to score the killer goal when we’re winning, and we’ll continue to try to do that.
“Every game in the Premier League is tough, and we’ll try to do the same things in the games we’ve got coming up. We’ll keep working, and hopefully we can do well next week.”
