West Ham 4 Ipswich Town 1: Wes Burns assesses ‘bad day at the office’ in the Premier League

Town winger Wes Burns reflected on a ‘bad day at the office’ as the Blues’ unbeaten run came to an end as they were comfortably beaten 4-1 by West Ham United.

Michail Antonio’s goal inside 48 seconds got the Blues off to the most disastrous of starts, but Liam Delap’s fourth goal of the season levelled things up just five minutes later.

But further goals from Mohammed Kudus, Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta ensured Town’s wait for a first Premier League win continue after a disappointing day on their first-ever trip to the London Stadium.

With the second international break of the season now upon us, Burns says the squad will learn their lessons and come back stronger ahead of Everton’s visit to Portman Road in a fortnight.

“Just a difficult afternoon for us as a team, there’s definitely lessons to be learned out there,” he said. “We’re still a squad that’s very young, we’re still knitting together with a lot of new lads coming in.

“There’s lessons learned and we’ll put them right over the international break.

“It’s never ideal conceding early. It is a bit of a mountain to climb, especially away from home. They were a team looking for their first home win of the season so they were always going to be doubly up for it today.

“There were periods of the game where we were on top and created a lot of chances. On another day the momentum probably swings in our favour and we go on and win the game. It’s a frustrating day for us in the end.

“We conceded at the start of the first half and the second half which is not ideal, but it is a process of cutting those mistakes out and we’ll be fine.

“It's one of those ones where on another day we get that little rub of the green and we possibly nick another goal, go into half-time at 2-1 and maybe the tide swings in our favour.

“We dominated the first five or six minutes of the second half and then another unfortunate goal to concede.

“I think all the goals were quite soft in all honesty, it’s just a bad day at the office.”

Burns will be heading off on international duty with Wales next week, but the 29-year-old says he does not feel it has come at a good time, instead maintaining the importance of not spending too much time dwelling on the result in east London.

He said: “It’s never a great time to go into the international break, really, but as professionals you always want to put the game right as quickly as possible.

“We’ve got a long period until we play Everton, but the group will bounce back from this as we always do from a bad result. The lads will just be champing at the bit to get back.

“One thing this group is good at is getting over bad results and not dwelling on things that have gone by, so I have no doubt the lads will be fully focused for the Everton game.”

The Blues’ mistakes were punished by the Hammers on an afternoon where their own winless home run was ended. Burns says the timing of the second goal just before half-time was crucial and denied suggestions that similar errors would not have been punished last season.

“The mistakes we made weren’t great,” he said. “Even at Championship level we’d have got punished with those and I think it’s amplified even more this season with the quality that they possess in the wide areas. They capitalised on us being a little bit sloppy at times today.

“Goals change games, ultimately. Had we have weathered the storm and got into half-time at 1-1 we may not have had to chase the game as much in the second half. We knew in the second half we needed to score, so conceding early didn’t help either.

“But there were periods in the second half where we dominated and created chances, Liam [Delap] had a chance to score and that might have changed the game even at 3-1. It’s a great save from their keeper [Alphonse Areola] to be fair but had that gone in it might have swung the tide.”

On Town’s wait for a first win of the season, Burns added: “It’s not really something that we focus on, to be honest. We have a process for every game and we know if we stick to our processes then that win will come eventually. It’s not something we worry too much about.”