West Ham forward, Jarrod Bowen is pleased by a “much better” performance in a 4-1 home win over Ipswich.
With just five points from their first six Premier League games this season, West Ham fans were restless with criticism of manager, Julen Lopetegui ahead of their clash against Ipswich.
Bowen however set up Michail Antonio’s first-minute opener before he netted their third goal – in-between Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta’s efforts, after Ipswich’s Liam Delap had cancelled out Antonio’s opening goal.
“It was much better today, and that was what we needed,” commented Bowen who was relieved to produce a display to silence the more critical fans, heading into the international break then trip to Tottenham on 19 October at 12:30pm BST.
“We all knew what it meant to us to put in a positive performance and get a positive result before the international break, and we spoke about what we needed to do.
“We’ve been on the end of some early goals, and it was good for us to get up and running from the start even if we weren’t happy when they levelled things up.”
Bowen also welcomed Kudus’ goal which set up the platform for the Hammers to kick on after half time, in which he netted the third goal just days after he was dropped from the England squad.
“Mo scored at the perfect time, because 1-1 is always a dangerous scoreline, and we spoke at half-time about getting the next goal and putting the game to bed. We managed to do that, thankfully.
“I never need any extra motivation to perform, and the England news was just one of those things, but you either let these things eat you up or you go and show what you’re about.
“My mindset has always been the same, and for the Club as well, we’ve been in a bit of a difficult situation, but to a man we’ve gone out there and got the job done today, which is great.”
Reflecting upon the whole performance, Bowen added that the whole team had done a solid job, which means that they now can go into the fortnight off on a positive note.
“I think it was a really good all-round team performance. I’m really happy for Mo, Mick and Lucas, and I think there were good performances in defence and midfield as well. Like I said, it was the positive performance we needed.
“You don’t want to be on the end of a defeat going into an international break, and thankfully those that are going away now will be going away happy.
“For us sticking around, we’ll keep going at the training ground ready for what will be a big game against Tottenham. Hopefully we can avoid injuries on all fronts, and kick on from this performance going forward.”
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