Rice: West Ham players let club and supporters down at Brighton

The Hammers head out to Cyprus to take on AEK Larnaca in the first leg of their last-16 tie on Thursday (5.45pm), on the back of a 4-0 beating at the Amex Stadium on Saturday.

And Rice apologised to the supporters for the performance, admitting it was not acceptable as they were left just one point above the Premier League relegation zone ahead of a home date with Aston Villa at London Stadium on Sunday (2pm).

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“We know it was not good enough but let’s try and bounce back on Thursday and then we will have Villa on Sunday,” Rice told whufc.com.

“Brighton was not good enough. It is going to hurt. We have let the fans down massively, but we will be onto the next.

“We just keep our heads down and I said to all the lads, we listen to ourselves and the people around us, and we stick together as a group and move on to the next one.

“I am sure our fans will be behind us in these next two fixtures.”

David Moyes’ men travelled to the south coast after exiting the FA Cup in midweek following a 3-1 defeat at Manchester United.

But they fell behind to a penalty from World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister on 18 minutes, then saw Joel Veltman double Brighton’s lead early in the second half.

Kaoru Mitoma added the third, before Danny Welbeck capped things off in the last minute and Rice added: “As a player, I am hurting, all the lads are hurting. Last week we won 4-0 [against Nottingham Forest], then played really well in the FA Cup. 

“We should have won [at Manchester United] so to have this result is a real setback.

“But credit to Brighton because they played us off the pitch and that was not a performance that was acceptable at all.

“It is cliché to say it was not good enough, but you have to apologise to the fans because we have let them and the club down.”

Goalkeeper Alphonse Areola echoed the sentiments of the skipper and says they have to put the defeat behind them and focus on moving forward.

“We know we didn’t play well. Obviously we are not happy about the game and we have to put it behind us and focus on the team,” he told the club website.

“We understand the fans were not happy, we were not happy [with the performance, either]. We have to be focused on the games that are coming, they are very important for us.

“We stick together, we’re all in the same ship and we move forward and try to get more points.

“As a competitor you cannot accept [Saturday’s game]. We have to work on what didn’t work for us and move forward.”