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Potter: I Felt Our Physicality Would Cause Ipswich Problems - Ipswich Town News

West Ham United head coach Graham Potter was pleased to finish the season by claiming three points via his side’s 3-1 victory over the Blues at Portman Road, but felt his team lost their way for a spell in the first half.

James Ward-Prowse, Jarrod Bowen and Mohammed Kudus netted the goals for the Hammers, Nathan Broadhead having netted a leveller for Town, the Wales international’s first home goal since the Southampton game on April 1st last year.

Former Blues left-back Aaron Cresswell, keeper Lukasz Fabianski and right-back Vladimír Coufal all made their final appearances for the East Londoners before moving on this summer.

"It’s a very nice way to finish the season,” said Potter said. "Three points, a good performance in front of our supporters, who were fantastic again, and then obviously a great send-off for the boys.

"It was a very emotional day, and an emotional few days and few weeks actually, so I'm very proud today to be connected with this fantastic football club.”

Reflecting further on the game, he added: "Credit to Ipswich. Obviously, they try to play and they're a well-organised team with Kieran McKenna, he's done a great job here for a couple of years, but I just felt that our physicality could cause them a few problems.

"We had a ten-minute spell in the first half where we lost our way, but apart from that, I thought we were in decent control. We were better when we were more aggressive pressing, and I think the first goal was an error, but a force from us.

"And then actually, I thought we started the second half quite well and looked good, and then we conceded.

"So, credit to the boys, they recovered from that and Jarrod's fantastic finish was a great goal and Mo has just topped it off.

"But in the end it was a good performance, a solid professional performance in a tricky game because, like I said, there's a lot of emotions for us.”

Potter, who was interviewed for the Town manager’s job in the summer of 2018 following Mick McCarthy’s departure, praised Bowen for reacting well to being left out of the England squad named on Friday.

"I thought that his overall performance just sums up him as a person, how he performed today, the energy that he had,” he added.

"Everything that we did that was good. I thought it came through him. In and out of possession, helped the team, ran in behind, linked up, he was a real threat and everyone in the stadium could feel that when he had the ball there was a sharpness to him.

"There was a period in the first half where we lost our way a little bit and then we had to defend and then we had to suffer for about 10 or 15 minutes but apart from that I thought that we were in a good place.

"As a team we have to be better. I don’t like to rely on individuals to dig you out.”

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