Jarrod Bowen admitted West Ham were “nowhere near” were they needed to be having squeezed past sixth-tier Kidderminster in the FA Cup.
A fifth-round trip to Southampton is the Hammers’ reward for the 2-1 extra-time win at Aggborough, which came after a stoppage-time leveller from Declan Rice and Bowen’s winner late into extra-time.
“We were disappointed with ourselves and were nowhere near at it,” the striker told the club's official website. “We know with the levels and the spirit in this group, the character, the desire, we stuck at it and got the goals to come away with the win in the end.
“I thought Kidderminster were excellent. Their crowd gave the perfect atmosphere for them and that's what it means to play against a Premier League team.
“I've never played against a Premier League team [for a lower league side] but I know what it is to be a non-league player and putting yourself out there so to speak. Massive credit to them, they were really good but at the end of the day we're happy to have gone through.
“We don't want to make excuses for ourselves, we're professional players playing at a high level and we need to get to our standards, where we want to be.
“Before we scored the second goal, and it was close to penalties which we know is a lottery, it started to feel like it might not come. We had to keep plugging away and maybe get that one chance. Thankfully we did. Let's get back to it and get our levels back up for Watford.”
West Ham boss David Moyes demanded better from his players with the FA Cup a trophy the club are targeting a run in.
“I thought we weren’t going to get through,” the boss admitted. “We hadn’t tried well with many things but what we had done hadn’t come off. We have got a long way to go if we think we’re going to get into finals. We have a lot of work to do and improve greatly.
“Declan made a difference which he has been doing. It was there for everyone to see and at the time in the game it looked like probably no one else would be able to get the goal. It took a special player to get the goal.”
