West Ham's Moyes seeks defensive improvement after Newcastle draw

(Reuters) - West Ham United have to plug their leaky defence if they want to win games, manager David Moyes said after they twice surrendered the advantage in Sunday's 2-2 Premier League draw at Newcastle United.

After Michail Antonio's early opener was cancelled out by Miguel Almiron, West Ham regained the lead through Tomas Soucek in the 65th minute. But Newcastle hit back less than two minutes later when Jonjo Shelvey found the net.

It was a blow for 16th-placed West Ham, who had stunned Chelsea 3-2 on Wednesday and were looking to climb further away from the relegation zone.

"I think when we look back, we'll probably think we're disappointed after getting in front a couple of times, certainly the second time to concede a goal so quickly," Moyes told the club's website https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/july/05-july/david-moyes-were-picking-points-must-tighten.

"We've started to find the net a few times and probably could have done a few more times today, but ultimately, we've got to stop conceding if we're going to win games.

"The players are in good spirits. We played well in midweek and had a great win against Chelsea, and we came here and did OK. I'm disappointed we didn't defend better at the times which really mattered."

West Ham, who have now gone consecutive games without defeat in the league for the first time since September, face Burnley at home on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel)