McClean strike in vain as Carroll rises to the challenge
WITHOUT a goal since April, without a start in six weeks, hardly looking recently like a sharp Premier League centre-forward, Andy Carroll’s selection up front for West Ham United felt like a speculative roll of the dice from David Moyes.
And in the first half it felt like a losing one, but Carroll produced a vintage second half, battering in an emphatic equalising header and then slotting in a far-post winner.
West Ham produced nothing of note in the first half and went behind to James McClean’s deflected shot. The second half was not much better, it must be said, but Carroll made himself dangerous in the box. Which is what he is paid to do.
Given that West Ham had one whole week to prepare and West Brom had had one day, the hosts should have brought more intensity to the first half. But instead they looked slow, ponderous and predictable.
Carroll struggled to impose himself on the opposition, barely winning anything from crosses or balls into the box, in the first half.
McClean, at the other end, was making an impression. Stationed out on the left, he had to spark a limp West Brom team into life but he did so, charging at Zabaleta every chance he got, unleashing an early shot to test Adrian.
That enterprising spirit was rewarded on the half hour. Salomon Rondo broke down the middle and fed McClean to his left. Cutting inside, he skipped past Winston Reid, changed direction to get back on his left foot.
He eventually shot, 20 yards out, and the ball hit Pedro Obiang, looped over Adrian and in. It was fortunate but West Ham could have gone in 2-0 down, as Craig Dawson and Jonny Evans failed to turn in from a McClean free-kick.
What West Ham desperately needed was for Carroll to get back into the game. In the first minute of the second half he got away in the six yard box, getting on the end of Marko Arnautovic’s cross from the right but directing it over.
And after another 15 minutes of frustration, Carroll did what he was meant to, equalising with a goal that only he could have scored. Aaron Cress well found himself some space on the left. He stood up a cross to the far post. Carroll hurtled at it, cleared out Kieran Gibbs and Evans, and thumped his header into the net. It was his first goal for nine months.
Oliver Burke could have exploited the space left by a home team chasing a winner but fluffed his lines and the next time West Ham attacked they got through. Lanzini played in Arnautovic, he whipped in a cross and there was Carroll at the far post to slot home.