ANDY CARROLL slammed West Ham’s fans for not supporting the club.
The London Stadium started to empty when Liverpool’s Mo Salah made it 4-1 in the 76th minute on Saturday.
And by the final whistle, most of the 56,961 crowd had left.
Striker Carroll, 28, said: “They really should be staying. They should stay until the end.
“You never know what’s going to happen.
“They walked out at half-time against Tottenham when we were getting beaten 2-0 and we turned it round.
“Look at Crystal Palace fans last week. Look what happened in the 97th minute.
“Fans should stay until the end, regardless of the team.
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“Obviously, it frustrates you. You don’t think about it during the game.
“But when you see the game back and you see the fans leaving, they shouldn’t really be leaving.
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“They should be supporting us no matter what. We should be playing better — it’s us to blame. But they should be helping us out a bit.”
Carroll was a half-time sub for Edimilson Fernandes and, although he understands the supporters’ frustrations under beleaguered boss Slaven Bilic, he clearly believes the negativity is not helping the players.
Asked whether he would like to see more loyalty, Carroll said: “One hundred per cent.”
He pulled no punches about West Ham’s dire situation and performance on Saturday but still firmly backed boss Bilic, even though the Croatian looks doomed.
Carroll added: “We have great quality. Fantastic quality.
“I’ve got no doubt that we’ll stay up this season.
“Everyone in the dressing room thinks the same. There are worse teams in the league than us to go down.
“We’re fine. We have a fantastic team. The manager’s done great in signing the players he has signed. It’s like a switch — we just have to change something and that’s it.
“The result was terrible. It’s not acceptable. Then we got back into it with the goal and they score straight away again.
“That’s not acceptable either. It was a terrible day. But we have a good enough dressing room to turn the situation around. Everyone knows that.”
Former Liverpool man Carroll, who is still waiting to open his account for the season, was also asked whether he was angry or frustrated.
He added: “I think it’s a bit of both, to be honest. I walked in at half-time fuming.
“Even the lads on the bench care. The goals we are conceding are sloppy. We need to put that right ourselves.
“We hope for the best. We know we can turn it round in the dressing room and with the manager so, hopefully, the owners know that as well.”
There was very little for West Ham’s fans to hang around for on Saturday, though. From their own corner, Sadio Mane burst clear and squared for Salah’s opener.
Just three minutes later Joel Matip made it 2-0 from close range after Andre Ayew made a hash of a Liverpool corner which deflected off Mark Noble and was parried by Joe Hart.
Manuel Lanzini pulled one back with an exquisite finish to stir the home fans and spark hopes of a comeback.
But within a minute those dreams faded and died as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored at the second attempt before Salah completed the rout.
And as if things could not get any worse, Everton’s comeback from two down to beat Watford dumped West Ham in the relegation zone last night.
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