Snodgrass admits point is ‘hard to take’

Robert Snodgrass admitted it was “hard to take” after his two glorious goals, supplemented by an assist, were not enough to give West Ham victory over Brighton in a six-goal roller-coaster in east London.

West Ham could only draw 3-3, despite sitting on a seemingly secure two-goal cushion with 15 minutes remaining.

Snodgrass curled in the perfect free-kick for Issa Diop to open the scoring, added the second with a well-struck drive right on half-time and appeared to have settled the issue with a magnificent 20-yard volley just before the hour.

West Ham pressed the selfdestruct button in the closing stages, having already gifted their fellow strugglers a goal just after half-time when goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski punched a corner straight at defender Angelo Ogbonna with the ball flying back into the net.

The farce deepened when Diop dithered over an awkwardly bouncing ball, allowing Pascal Gross to prod home in the 75th minute. Four minutes later, with panic levels rising in the home rearguard, the ball was allowed to cross the face of goal and reach Glenn Murray, who stroked Brighton level.

It all combined to dump West Ham into the bottom three and, with their next fixtures taking them to Manchester City and Liverpool respectively, they face an increasingly-daunting battle to claw their way out of the relegation zone.

“Getting the two goals and an assist, and not being on the winning side is hard to take,” Snodgrass said. “We scored three goals at home, but we’ve had a few mistakes where we should clear the ball, or we have made a bad decision, and we shouldn’t be in that position.

“We’ve got enough men on the park to see the game out, so it’s disappointing. But we have to stick together because there were some good performances and the season isn’t decided on today.”

The video assistant referee deliberated over Murray’s equaliser for nearly 3½ minutes, before arriving at the correct decision that Brighton’s veteran striker, starting his first match since September, had not handled it prior to sweeping in.

“We knuckled down, stuck together, didn’t throw in the towel and came away with a valuable point,” said Murray, 36. “We are leaving the stadium the happier of the two teams. We’ve got to move on from this point with a bit more belief in ourselves.”