Hammers hurt by Soucek blunder but Moyes marches on

TOMAS Soucek’s own goal wasn’t how David Moyes envisioned seeing in his 1,000th game as a manager, with West Ham surrendering their 100 per cent record in Europe. Said Benrahma had scored his second of the evening in the 82nd minute and visiting fans thought their side were cruising into the Europa League’s knockout stages. Then Soucek helped the hosts to an equaliser in the 87th minute. He hasn’t scored since the season’s opening day but, unfortunately, broke that drought at the wrong end. The better news is West Ham remain unbeaten in this tournament. They’re top of Group H and have all but qualified. Failure to win was not the end of the world. ‘On reflection, a draw might have been the right result,’ said Moyes, whose side were trailing 1-0 at half-time after a poor first 45. ‘I’d slightly altered a couple of things to see how it would work and if it would go for us. ‘We’re trying to rotate the squad and make the most of what we’ve got. We’re still new to Europe. We knew, somewhere along the line, it would be bumpy.’ Sir Alex Ferguson’s 1,000th game in charge of Manchester United was a 2-1 win over Lyon. Arsene Wenger’s 1,000th in charge of Arsenal a 6-0 loss at Chelsea. These occasions can go very right, or very wrong. Moyes named a surprisingly strong side, despite the visit of Liverpool on Sunday. Yet even with Declan Rice and Michail Antonio starting, it was Genk who dominated. Four minutes in, Junya Ito hit a fine pass behind West Ham’s defence. Issa Diop tried to intercept but Joseph Paintsil latched on to the ball and beat keeper Alphonse Areola. West Ham could have equalised before the break but Maarten Vandevoordt stopped Benrahma from tapping in Arthur Masuaku’s low cross. Then Antonio’s shot squirmed under Vandevoordt. The ball was about to cross the line and Rice rushed in to make sure, but Patrik Hrosovsky slid in to clear. After 57 minutes, Moyes made a triple substitution — Jarrod Bowen for Antonio, Soucek for Mark Noble and Pablo Fornals for Masuaku. Seconds later, it was 1-1, Vladimir Coufal crossing and Benrahma scoring through the legs of Vandevoordt. In the 82nd minute, Benrahma took the ball past Mujaid Sadick and struck for 2-1. The winner, or so Moyes thought. In the 87th minute, it was 2-2. Angelo Preciado crossed and Soucek could only head the ball into his own net.