SAFETY SHELVED
Jonjo grabs a Hammers heartbreaker just as Moyes’ men were dreaming of breathing space in relegation battle
WEST HAM stopped the rot of a seven-game losing streak away from home, but David Moyes will see it as an opportunity missed.
Twice the relegation-threatened Hammers took the lead, through Michail Antonio and Tomas Soucek.
But twice they blew the chance of three precious points – in the second half conceding Jonjo Shelvey’s equaliser just 92 seconds after Soucek’s strike.
A point, the first on their travels since December 14 when they beat Southampton, lifted Moyes’ men four points clear of the drop zone, and it could prove crucial to their survival.
With Burnley, Norwich Watford to face in their next three games, it’s in their own hands, before facing Aston Villa on the final day.
West Ham were bright in the second half, but were held at bay by an in-form Steve Bruce outfit.
Newcastle have now gone unbeaten in six games and have collected eight points since the restart. And it was Shelvey who rescued the
Geordies with his sixth goal of the season – making him their unlikely leading scorer in the league – after Miguel Almiron had also levelled.
Shelvey said: “We struggled to score early in the season but we are banging them in for fun now.
“We want to finish in the top 10. We know we are safe and it is about expressing ourselves. We want to finish as high as we can.”
Hammers striker Antonio opened the scoring after just four minutes, cashing in on a rare defensive slip by Toon skipper Jamaal Lascelles.
Pablo Fornals slipped Jarrod Bowen into the right channel of the penalty area, and crossed first time.
Lascelles should have dealt with it but miskicked, and Antonio had the simple task of tapping home for his second goal of the week. United’s leveller came from a wonderful onetouch, incisive move finished by Almiron.
Dwight Gayle and Allan SaintMaximin combined to ping it wide to Emil Krafth, who fired to the near post, and Almiron nipped in for his second in five days and his seventh this year.
The Paraguayan is now adding goals to his pace and threat from the No.10 role.
After the break West Ham took the lead again – and squandered it immediately.
Soucek opened his account against Chelsea in midweek and produced another powerful finish in the 66th minute. Midfield partner Declan Rice forced a header against the bar from Bowen’s corner, and Soucek, loaned from Slavia Prague in January, reacted quickly to smash home from 12 yards.
Given the Hammers’ woeful away record since December, they might have sat tight and tried to kill the game for the next ten minutes.
Instead, Newcastle were level just
92 seconds later through Shelvey.
Joelinton drove at the centre of the West Ham defence, sliding a ball to Gayle’s feet.
But Shelvey came bursting through and nicked it off the striker’s toes to slot the ball home.
The away defence appealed for offside, baffled at how United had sliced through them so easily.
But Fornals, asleep in the left-back position, failed to clear out of the box and played Gayle onside.
Martin Dubravka’s heroics kept sub Andriy Yarmolenko’s long-range shot out late on to secure the point.