Sub Carroll strikes late to dent Stoke’s survival hopes

IT proved a tale of two tall strikers at the London Stadium last night as Andy Carroll struck late to cancel out a goal from fellow sub Peter Crouch to earn West Ham a share of the spoils.

After a largley dominant display from the home side, it looked like Stoke had plundered all three points when Crouch seized on a mistake by Joe Hart who flapped at a fairly routine 80yh minute effort from Xherdan Shaqiri.

The Hammers goalkeeper tried to poke away the rebound with his foot, but Crouch nipped in to toe-poke the ball to the net from close range.

However, Carroll - who has been absent for three months since scoring two goal against West Brom – came to the rescue of David Moyes’ men when he showed great poise to rifle home a cross from Aaron Creswell.

The goal was more than the Irons deserved as they had three goals disallowed during the course of the game – the last of which was by another replacement, Javier Hernandez.

The Mexican seized on a knock-down by Carroll to curl the ball to the net in the 89th minute but referee Michael Oliver adjudged that Carroll had handled the ball in the build-up.

Right at the death, the Potters nearly snatched a winner when Shaqiri whipped in a delightful cross into the box, which Hart failed to deal with but this Crouch headed inches wide.

The draw means that both sides are still fighting to avoid the drop with Stoke in deep trouble, lying second from bottom just above West Brom Albion.

West Ham have a small bit of breathing space as they are now up to 35 points, but in their five remaining fixtures, they still have to play away to Arsenal, home to champions Manchester City and also at home to Manchester United, so Moyes will be taking nothing for granted.