David Moyes has called on West Ham United fans to stick by him and the team following Saturday's humbling 4-0 defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League.
Alexis Mac Allister started the rout when he converted an 18th-minute penalty kick, before second-half strikes from Joel Veltman, Kaoru Mitoma and Danny Welbeck condemned the Hammers to their heaviest defeat of the season.
West Ham entered the contest at the Amex Stadium following a 4-0 home triumph over Nottingham Forest last weekend, before coming up short with a spirited performance in a 3-1 FA Cup fifth-round defeat at Manchester United on Wednesday.
However, Moyes's men were comprehensively beaten and outclassed on the South Coast by their European-chasing counterparts, leaving West Ham – who have won only two of their last 13 top-flight games – sitting just two places and two points above the relegation zone.
West Ham's supporters vented their frustration towards Moyes during and after the match, with chants of "you don't know what you're doing" and "you're getting sacked in the morning" heard from the away end.
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Speaking to BBC Sport about the fans' frustrations, Moyes said: "We need them behind us. Good supporters support when it's bad as well as good. And for the past few years it's been really good here.
"There was anger from everybody (today). Anger from the supporters, anger from the manager, the players are angry, they're disappointed with themselves.
"That's the way it's got to be – we're not accepting what's happened today. We're going to try to do something about it, to make sure the next performance is better. It's sore just now. We'll look at it and move on again."
On his team's performance against Brighton, the Scotsman added: "What went wrong? I'd have to give some praise to Brighton, but we lost a terrible first goal. We should easily have dealt with it. And the second was from a corner kick, so we found we were climbing a mountain.
"If we'd won today it would've made us feel a lot easier. We're probably all looking at around 40 points to stay away from the bottom of the league, but the only thing you can do is take each game as it comes."
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Speaking at his post-match press conference, as quoted by football.london, Moyes continued: "It wasn't good. We've not played well today. We let ourselves down. In the first half, we gave away a terrible goal from a penalty kick.
"We knew we were probably having to find ourselves giving up more possession than we'd like to. We had a couple of chances and we didn't take them. It's one of the worst results since I've been back here. Brighton have played very well.
"I totally understand (the fans), they've been watching a really good team for the last few years, getting sixth or seventh in Europe. I understand it's hard to come and watch today.
"I would say I hope they've seen a lot from the last few years to have hope."
Moyes will be hoping to ease the pressure on his shoulders when leading his West Ham side out in Cyprus for the first leg of their Europa Conference League last-16 tie against AEK Larnaca on Thursday, before returning to Premier League action with a home fixture against Aston Villa three days later.
Oliver Thomas
