Michail Antonio moves focus to top four after West Ham’s FA Cup exit

Michail Antonio insisted West Ham have serious ambitions of Champions League qualification as he attempted to put a positive spin on their FA Cup exit.

The high-flying Hammers looked to have a major opportunity to reach the cup quarter-finals after makeshift Southampton made nine changes for Wednesday’s fifth-round tie at St Mary’s.

But, despite Antonio cancelling out Romain Perraud’s stunning opener with his first goal since New Year’s Day, a James Ward-Prowse penalty and late finish from Armando Broja saw Saints deservedly progress with a 3-1 win.

Fifth-placed West Ham sit two points below Manchester United in the race for the Premier League top four ahead of Saturday’s trip to Liverpool.

David Moyes’ men are also chasing Europa League glory, with a two-legged last-16 clash against Spanish club Sevilla to come during the next fortnight.

“Onwards and upwards, basically; we’ve got to pick ourselves up from this and go again on Saturday,” Antonio told the Hammers’ website.

“Obviously we wanted to go further in this competition, and now we’re out, so all we’ve got to do is concentrate on what we are in now, and that’s the Europa League and the Premier League.

“We’re still going for the top four, so with all the negatives that have happened (at Southampton), we’ve got to think about the positives for the season.

“We’ve got the top four chase still and we’re in the last 16 of the Europa League. Let’s just see what we can do with those and keep moving forwards.

“One thing about us is that nothing knocks us down. We don’t stay down. We get up and we go again.”

West Ham faded fast from a bright start on the south coast and lacked an end product.

Perraud’s rocket from more than 25 yards stunned the London club, although they levelled on the hour mark when one-time Saints loanee Antonio poked home his 10th goal of the season in all competitions following a corner.

But parity did not last long as Southampton skipper Ward-Prowse coolly converted from 12 yards after Craig Dawson was adjudged to have fouled Broja following VAR intervention.

Substitute Broja put the result beyond doubt deep into added-time, with Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl reaping the rewards of initially holding back some of his star names on the bench.

On a personal note, Antonio was pleased to end an eight-game goal drought at club level and hopes to start hitting the net regularly.

“I’ve been saying it over the last couple of weeks that I feel like a goal’s been coming,” said the 31-year-old.

“I worked quite hard for the team against Wolves (on Sunday) and managed to get the assist, so I said it was coming – I could feel it.

“I managed to get the goal, so hopefully this goal can get me on a nice little run to finish off the season.”