Nuno Espírito Santo apologised to West Ham United supporters after his side suffered a 2-1 home defeat to Charlton Athletic, admitting the Hammers had “failed” their fans at the London Stadium.
West Ham remain without a Championship victory after two matches, having followed their opening 2-2 draw at Burnley with a damaging defeat on home soil.
Nuno apologises after West Ham defeat
Charlton punished West Ham twice before Joël Piroe pulled one back with his first goal for the club, while Taty Castellanos later missed a stoppage-time penalty that could have rescued a point.
ReadWestHam covered all of the key incidents in our West Ham 1-2 Charlton match report.
Speaking after the final whistle, Nuno accepted responsibility for the result and issued a direct apology to the supporters.
“It’s us who failed today. It was us. We failed them. We should apologise, but I humbly ask for them to believe and keep supporting like they are doing.”
It was a considerably stronger admission than simply blaming the result on missed opportunities.
Nuno instead pointed towards problems in both penalty areas, with West Ham conceding Lloyd Jones’ early opener from a throw-in before Tyreece Campbell doubled Charlton’s advantage after the break.
“It’s not about the way we played, it’s about the situations in the box,” Nuno said.
“We didn’t defend the throw in properly. We didn’t create enough in the offensive box. We created a lot of situations, but weren’t able to take them today.”
Sky Sports’ match centre details West Ham’s second Championship fixture of the campaign at the London Stadium.
Piroe’s debut goal was one positive on an otherwise difficult afternoon, with the new striker finishing as ReadWestHam’s highest-rated player in our West Ham player ratings against Charlton.
Nuno now has little time to dwell on the defeat, with West Ham travelling to Southampton in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night.
“We have to recover the boys, prepare for Tuesday, and go again,” he added.
“There is a long way to go. We have to remain positive and believe we’re going to achieve what we want.”
