Michail Antonio shares what West Ham’s players said about their warm-up before Newcastle clash

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Michail Antonio has now shared with The Footballer’s Football Podcast what West Ham United’s players were saying about their warm-up at St James’ Park on Saturday.

The Hammers picked up a hard-earned point against Newcastle United over the weekend, but they didn’t get off to an ideal start.

Joe Willock thought he had opened the scoring in the first minute of the game, but his effort was overturned by VAR.

Just two minutes later though, Callum Wilson had got Newcastle off the mark after he raced through on goal before beating Lukasz Fabianski.

It was a poor start to the game from David Moyes’ side but they clearly felt confident during the warm-up.

Declan Rice told Sky Sports that it was probably the best preparation for a game the Hammers have experienced this season. 

Now, Antonio has echoed the Englishman’s post-match thoughts and shared what his teammates were saying about their warm-up before the game got underway.

What West Ham’s players said about their warm-up before Newcastle clash

“The first three minutes were moments of madness. I don’t know what it was because let’s just call it moments of madness because what I find crazy is that our warm-up was so sharp,” Antonio said.

“We were on fire. We went in and were like ‘the warm up is flames, we’ll go out there and bring the warm-up into the game’.

“Then bang goal. Saved by VAR. I was like ‘sugar’. Oh alright minor, nothing, let’s go again. Start afresh.

“Boom, Callum through on goal. As soon as he was through on goal I was like ‘this is a goal’. I was fuming. And then when you finished it I was like this is going to be long, this guy is getting a hat-trick and I’m not even turning up to the party!”

Newcastle often start games quickly and despite what was obviously a positive pre-match experience for the Hammers, they were under the cosh for the opening 15 minutes of the game.

But David Moyes’ side certainly responded well as Luca Paqueta got them back on level terms just after the half hour mark.

It was an important point for West Ham against an in-form Newcastle side. The Hammers sit just a point above the relegation zone but Moyes will be encouraged after his side have put in some improved displays over the past couple of weeks.