David Moyes lamented “two really poor goals” as winless West Ham fell to a 2-0 home defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League on Sunday.
The Seagulls’ Alexis Mac Allister opened the scoring from the spot in the 22nd-minute after Hammers new signing Thilo Kehrer – bought from Paris St-Germain on Wednesday – brought down Danny Welbeck inside the penalty area.
A second-half goal from Leandro Trossard doubled Brighton’s lead and consigned West Ham to a third successive league reverse – and a position at the foot of the table.
“I’m disappointed because we didn’t win,” Moyes told BBC Sport.
“We did OK but we gave away a couple of really poor goals.
“The penalty was the turning point, we started OK and contained them a little bit but we lacked that bit of quality and we didn’t keep the ball when we won it. We hadn’t done badly up till then.
“The same situation happened in the second half as well. We got ourselves back in the game and looked threatening but the second goal was a killer and we were punished.
“Brighton are a good team. I did think we had done better in some parts today against them than we had in the past but it doesn’t show in the result.”
The hosts started in confident form after their 3-1 win over Danish side Viborg in the Europa Conference League play-off first leg last Thursday, with winger Said Benrahma firing just wide.
But Brighton drew first blood when Kehrer mistimed a last-ditch tackle on Welbeck and Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot, with Mac Allister making no mistake.
Again West Ham started the second half brightly but their wait for a first goal this season continued, as Trossard put daylight between the teams after finding the net from Pascal Gross’s flick in the 66th-minute.
West Ham continued to push but Aaron Cresswell had a shot blocked by Joel Veltman and Tomas Soucek had two headers kept out by visiting shot-stopper Robert Sanchez.
Brighton move up to fourth following their impressive victory.
