Wanderers exited the Carabao Cup after suffering a 3-0 defeat in the third Round against West Ham United on Tuesday night.
Goals from Angelo Ogbonna, Diafra Sakho and a wonder-strike from Arthur Masuaku were enough for the Irons, who showed their Premier League class in a difficult contest for the Whites.
Speaking to bwfc.co.uk following the final whistle, manager Phil Parkinson covered the following points...
On his side’s performance…
We got off to a bad start and gave a cheap free-kick away. To concede a set play goal was disappointing and for a while after it was tough for us as West Ham were excellent.
Second-half I thought we were terrific and very honest in our performance. At 2-0 down against a team of that quality it could easily go to four of five down if you haven’t got an honest group of players.
We were led by the captain in the middle of the pitch who really dug deep. Darren (Pratley) is a player who gets criticised at times by our fans, but his heart tonight was magnificent and the way he helped Jeff King beside him tonight was great.
I thought the lads stuck together, they were disciplined and really worked for each other in that second-half.
We had some good periods of play, but we weren’t able to find that goal which was disappointing, but we have to say the lads really stuck together and gave it everything tonight.
We know things are not going great for us, but I was proud of the players tonight.
On his ability to rotate the squad…
When we beat Sheffield Wednesday and got this draw we knew it would give us problems in terms of managing the squad.
We made a lot of changes tonight, we gave some people minutes who needed it and that was a big ask when you come up against a team like West Ham, but I thought the lads did very well particularly in the second-half.
It’s given me the opportunity to play some young players who will really benefit from the experience and I also feel it was a good experience for some of our senior players who would have enjoyed playing on this stage.
On the performance of Jeff King…
I thought Jeff was great. Even in the first-half I thought he was one of our best players, he tackled, he ran, he passed it simply and he showed he could be a bonus player for us tonight.
His character was good tonight and he handled his first game against Premier League opposition very well. He has to get a lot fitter and that will come with the more games he plays at this level.
And finally, on Saturday’s fixture vs Brentford…
We would have loved to have done better, the early goal has killed us, but we’re ready for a good game at the weekend.
The lads can go into the game with their head held high and if we play like we did against Ipswich, and as we did in the second-half today, we will give ourselves a good chance of getting our first league win of the season.