Cresswell looks to turn West Ham fans’ jeers to cheers

Hosts’ confidence is low after long winless streak Bruce upbeat as front three gel for Newcastle

Aaron Cresswell admits Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham United players could have no complaints about being booed for a display that shows the optimism around a positive start to the season is fading fast.

The manager could not disguise his concern after the 3-2 loss to Newcastle United. Remedies are needed and left-back Cresswell admits the squad’s confidence has been affected by a run of six winless games.

“I think that is obvious,” he said. “We have not won for a few games now and going forward, it is not quite there. We need that little break in a game. But it should not take being two or three goals down to Newcastle to get a reaction.”

The reaction to a poor first-half display that saw Newcastle establish a two-goal lead through headers from Ciaran Clark and Federico Fernandez suggest that the supporters are impatient. “It is down to us at the end of the day how they react and rightly so at times,” said Cresswell. “There is no beating around the bush. From our point of view it was not good enough.”

Steve Bruce believes Newcastle are coming out of their own tough period after a testing start and the manager thinks his front three of Joelinton, Miguel Almiron and Allan Saint-maximin are beginning to gel despite scoring just one league goal between them so far.

Saint-maximin in particular stood out against West Ham. “I said from the first moment I saw him, he’s going to excite you and take you off your seat,” said Bruce. “If he stays fit and healthy, there’s things he must improve on but he’s got that natural ability which not many people have. He just has to improve in the final thing, take the right pass, but that hopefully will come with time and experience because he’s only 22.”