Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
PREMIER LEAGUE SOLDIERS
New boss inspires fightback and staves off East End mutiny.. for now
DAVID MOYES may not have the cure for all ills in West Ham’s fight to escape the drop zone.
But as Cheikhou Kouyate banked the first point of Moyes’ reign, the keynote was unity instead of mutiny.
In truth, it was an absolute dog’s dinner of a match, and Andre Ayew can expect an invite to join Everton’s Oumar Niasse in the sin bin, among the first casualties of the Premier League’s crackdown on diving.
Ayew’s Fosbury flop under England defender Harry Maguire’s negligible escort was pathetic – although referee Martin Atkinson did not admonish him with a yellow card.
And Ayew’s bicycle kick in added time almost stole the points, which would have been no more than Leicester deserved.
Claude Puel’s shrinking violets were less adventurous than hermits on a night ripe for rebellion in claret and blue heartlands which turned out to be nothing of the sort.
No other club could drive their supporters to such depths of despair that they dial 999 and are told to get lost for blocking the Essex police control-room switchboard.
No managerial appointment in the Premier League, since Rafa Benitez was installed at Chelsea, has been afforded such a lukewarm reception as Moyes’ arrival at the Taxpayers’ stadium.
And no other club does mutiny quite as viciously as the Hammers’ hardline fringe.
The abuse directed at the Two Daves who own the club, and vice-chair Karren Brady, in Moyes’ unhappy baptism at Watford last Sunday, was a concerto mainly in four letters.
Despite a bright start by the home side, it took just eight minutes for the mood to darken again over the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park.
From Leicester’s first attack, the Premier League’s most porous defence sprang another leak.
Angelo Ogbonna failed to intercept Jamie Vardy’s low cross from the left, and Marc Albrighton stole in at the far post to turn it beyond England keeper Joe Hart. But Kouyate snaffled an equaliser a minute before the break.
From Manuel Lanzini’s left-wing corner, Kasper Schmeichel didn’t know whether to stick or twist, and Kouyate smuggled his header past Danny Simpson on the line.
Schemichel had earlier made a fine reflex save to keep out Ogbonna’s header, and his indecision at a set-piece was surprising for such a consistent performer.
But even the most ardent Leicester cheerleaders, in the Gary Lineker class, could deny Moyes’ side merited the first goal of his reign.
The Hammers boss applauded his players heartily down the tunnel at the break, and the fans responded by cranking up the volume.
Pie and mash connoisseurs have struggled to recreate the raw intimidation of Upton Park since they became tenants of an athletics track in Stratford.
Yet as they cleared their throats and warmed to their task here, Moyes enjoyed the optimism reverberating around the famous old ground with its history stretching back to 2012.
But as much as they pushed Leicester back, and as much as the Foxes looked there for the taking, the Hammers laboured to put them away.