West Ham manager Matt Beard was left disappointed by his side’s inability to stay in the game after they were beaten 4-2 at home by Manchester United.

The Hammers twice pulled back to within one goal of the visitors but then conceded again within four minutes on both occasions.

And it is that struggle to keep themselves in matches which is frustrating Beard at the start of their 2020-21 Women’s Super League campaign.

"We shot ourselves in the foot today massively. We’re really frustrated with the second and third goals more so than the first and the fourth," he told the club website.

"We’ve got to battle and we’ve got back into the game twice, but we’ve shot ourselves in the foot by conceding so quickly afterwards. We have to be better in those moments.

"On our day, we’ve got a very good team who can compete with anyone, and we felt this was a good opportunity today for us to kickstart our season. It’s a tough one, but I believe in this group of players and I believe that when everyone is fit, we can cause anyone problems."

West Ham have not won a WSL game so far this season and currently sit in tenth place on just one point.

The international break means they now have more than two weeks until their next game when they take on Reading in the WSL Cup before travelling to Birmingham City in the league on November 8.

And despite their poor run of form, Beard remains optimistic his side will grow into the campaign in the coming months.

"Hopefully everyone that goes away next week is able to stay fit and the ones that are here now, like Hawa (Cissoko), will be able to get fit and then we’ve got a full senior squad," he added.

"We feel like in November and December we’ve got some really winnable games."