CARROLL LANDS A HAMMER BLOW
Striker has the last laugh with dramatic winner
Andy Carroll’s first goals since april Fool’s day spared West Ham from becoming a punch-line in a joke about too much rest in the festive fixture schedule.
The Hammers were trailing to a James McClean goal and were booed off at half-time as West Bromwich albion defied their concerns about a second game in 48 hours.
Carroll, starting for the first time in more than a month, equalised with a typically towering header before finding a winner in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
‘ Two great centre forward’s goals,’ said Moyes as his team moved out of the bottom three. ‘That’s as good as it gets. I was a centre half and I don’t think you can stop his leap for the first. The second shows great quality from a tight angle to complete the finish.’
It was the first time West Ham had fought back to win a Premier league game at the london stadium, but albion boss alan Pardew claimed fatigue caught up with his players.
West Brom complained to the Premier league about playing 48 hours after a draw against arsenal while West Ham were in action for the first time since Boxing day.
‘We were hanging physically and mentally,’ said Pardew, for whom Matt Phillips suffered a hamstring injury in the warm-up and had to be replaced. ‘It’s very difficult to criticise my team but you could see in the last 20 minutes we were desperate.’
Jake livermore, initially named as a substitute, came into the midfield and was embroiled in an angry exchange with West Ham fans when he was replaced in the second half and took his place on the bench.
‘The only thing I know is I’ve seen Jake in the crowd, which disturbed me,’ said former West Ham boss Pardew. ‘He’s a great lad, so he must have been provoked.’
livermore was led away to the dressing rooms and albion coach John Carver confronted the stewards. Both clubs said they were investigating the incident.
McClean fired West Brom into the lead, meeting little resistance as he moved inside from the left and twisted back on to his left foot before taking aim from 25 yards. angelo ogbonna and Pedro obiang made belated attempts to close him down but only managed to deflect the shot and leave goalkeeper adrian stranded. Ben Foster made three fine saves in the first half, two to deny Manuel lanzini and another at the feet of Cheikhou Kouyate. Moyes shook things up at half-time, sending Mark noble into midfield and switching to a back four.
restored to his position as a conventional left back, aaron Cresswell supplied the cross for the equaliser when Carroll climbed above Jonny Evans and Kieran Gibbs to head past Foster.
Both sides had chances before Carroll (left) scored his second, slid in at the back post from a low cross by Marko arnautovic.
‘For long periods it didn’t look likely,’ said Moyes. ‘But we lost a goal in the last minute at Bournemouth which should have counted and newcastle scored an offside goal here. Tonight things went for us. you earn your luck a bit.’