Eckert: Brave Saints "came to win"
Tonda Eckert hailed a “proper team performance” as his brave Southampton side got their rewards for taking the game to West Ham at the London Stadium.
The Hammers, second at the start of the weekend, were the Sky Bet Championship’s highest scorers, but Saints paid no respect to the pre-season promotion favourites with a bold attacking display.
Flying out of the blocks, Eckert’s team led 2-0 inside 11 minutes through goals from Kuryu Matsuki and a spectacular strike from James Bree, and 3-1 at half time thanks to Lewis Dobbin’s first goal for the club.
Saints saw out the second half with relatively few alarms until Tomáš Souček reduced the deficit to 3-2 in stoppage time, before Daniel Peretz made a crucial flying save to secure a statement victory on the road.
“It’s not easy to come here. It’s a big football club, some big players that we came up against today,” Eckert reflected.
“I think it was important for us to start the game strong. We’ve been working all week to make sure we get a foot into the game early on, and I think we played a very good 20, 25 minutes. I think we deserved to go up, clinical today with the chances.
“When the game throws some challenges your way you need to make sure you defend in some moments, and I think we’ve done that very well. We needed to be brave on the ball in the second half to make sure that we had enough spells.
“Like always, some moments in the game that we need to improve, but it was a proper team performance today. Very, very proud of the boys, and of the support – the support was excellent today from the travelling fans.”
Eckert highlighted the performance of his goalkeeper but also Saints’ explosive start, citing the need to instil a winning mindset into his players, regardless of the opposition.
“I think it’s important that we come here and play to win the game. You never know what you get in the end, but the mindset needs to be that – that we come here to win,” he added.
“If you want to do that, you need to be brave. You need to be brave on the ball and then obviously they give you challenges against the ball where you need to suffer, that is just what it is. I think we’ve done that very well today.
“We had a good goalkeeper in the second half and I think that’s what you need if you come here. You can try to defend as much as you can as a team, but there are some moments where you need a goalkeeper and Daniel was excellent today.”
