Neil McDonald says he is happy with the Hammers’ performance against Austrian club聽FK Austria Wien despite losing to them 3-1.
This was the Irons’ opening game of the pre-season and it’s early days and Macca says that he’s happy and it was more about the taking part than winning.
Another thing about the game was that the Austrian side have 3 weeks fitness over the hammers’ and it showed despite the lads going 1 nil up.
The goal from West Ham United came courtesy from a header by Sam Baldock but once the Austrians found their groove the fitness levels started to show.
McDonald had this to say to West Ham news:
“The game went very much the way I thought it would go,” McDonald confirmed to West Ham TV. “We started off well and scored a really good goal through Sam and then their passing and moving took over.
“We conceded two poor goals in the first half. The goal they scored in the second half was a really good strike so probably, all in all, we’re pleased.
“We said before the game that it was all about improving our fitness and getting our endurance up and a lot of them played 45 minutes-plus so it finished off a good week, even though we got beaten 3-1.”
The Hammers were out of the blocks fast and furious and Baldock’s goal came from a nice little chipping cross from Carlton Cole. That was it as far as more goals from the irons I’m afraid and the Austrians scored courtesy of Roland Linz and Dare Srvic in the first half who were unfortunately allowed to put the ball away from inside the box.
The Austrian side’s second-half goal came 15 minutes from time from substitute Tomas Jun and this put the game beyond West Ham. New signing Jussi Jaaskelainen was well beaten by the strike, too.
Okay, so it’s early days, it’s been just one game so no panicking 馃檪 Neil McDonald also confirmed that West Ham would be working hard to strengthen the squad ahead of the opening Barclays Premier League fixture at home to Aston Villa on 18th August.
