After a promising start to the season that has seen the Hammers pick up 4 points from their opening 2 games, many were expecting a better performance from the home side.
“Well it’s a real shock to me and I think everybody who came to watch the game will be as shocked as I am because we obviously were looking forward to this home game after how far we’ve come in a short period of time.
“Certainly after the week when we beat Cardiff and were disappointed not to win at Newcastle where we were the better side, to see a performance that is the complete opposite to what we normally are.”
Despite the result, the manager reserved praise for his goalkeeper and defenders and pointed to the midfield and attack as the weakness.
“I have to give the back four a lot of credit because they are really void of any criticism. For all the game, they defended with great spirit because Stoke had the majority of the possession and put us under more pressure than we did them.
“It’s disappointing from our front-six point of view and what they didn’t create, but from a back-four and goalkeeper point of view, they nearly mastered their way through to another clean sheet and a point for us, which would have been very precious. Unfortunately, they got the blow with that free-kick at the end.
“In creative terms, our players who do create didn’t, and that’s why we had such a lacklustre performance.”