Truly West Hammered
WOE NO! West Ham’s Mark Noble cannot believe he missed his chance
DAVID MOYES pulled no punches after his West Ham side were dumped out of the FA Cup by West Brom.
Conor Townsend’s early goal condemned the hosts to a 1-0 defeat as Albion manager Slaven Bilic – who was sacked by the Hammers in 2017 – came back to haunt his old club.
Irritatingly for the Hammers, they fielded pretty much their strongest available line-up while Bilic made eight changes to his, with the Croatian’s priority lying with the Championship promotion race.
Albion also played the final 18 minutes with 10 men after Semi Ajayi
was sent off for a second booking. Moyes, who made three substitutions at the break, said: “I would have made a couple more if I was allowed to.
“We were passing the ball away, kicking it out of the pitch.
“I think it got better but we weren’t able to manufacture anything clear-cut.
“It definitely wasn’t a lack of effort. The players were determined to do well. We just didn’t show good quality. We pushed but that was about all we did.
“It was pretty much a West Ham first team. We did everything we could to get through, I wanted to give the supporters a cup run.
“You see it a lot in cup ties, a lot of upsets, some much bigger than this. We had to play better and we didn’t.”
The Baggies’ goal arrived in the ninth minute after a carefree 40-yard run from Filip Krovinovic led to a mix-up between Issa Diop and Carlos Sanchez and saw the ball fall at the feet of Townsend, who made no mistake.
They squandered chances to go further ahead before West Ham almost snatched a replay when Mark Noble blazed over from 12 yards in stoppage time.