WEST HAM BLOW IT
Angry Moyes blasts his flops as they squander a 3-1 lead in last 15 minutes
DECLAN RICE slapped the turf with both hands in frustration, Issa Diop, Ryan Fredericks and Aaron Cresswell were among those left crestfallen and down on their haunches, while boos rang out around the London Stadium.
This was not how anybody inside the ground could have envisaged this game finishing less than 20 minutes earlier.
It was certainly not the ending — with yet more dropped points — t hat West Ham wanted given everything that has gone before and what is to come.
A four-game winless league run, an FA Cup home humbling against West Brom and rising fan fury towards the club’s board had washed away the feel-good factor that followed David Moyes’ debut win against Bournemouth.
Meanwhile, their upcoming run of fixtures — six of their next seven games against top seven teams — underlined how little room for error West Ham now have in their bid to stay up.
This was the definition of a must-win match for the Hammers. Somehow, though, they contrived to throw it away having led 2-0 at the break and then 3-1 in the second half, as late as the 75th minute, shooting themselves in the foot twice with some awful defending to gift Brighton a route back into it.
When they were in front, West Ham were on course to head into their nightmare run of fixtures 15th and at least with a cushion between them and the bottom three.
Following Brighton’s stirring comeback, however, which was sealed by Glenn Murray’ s VAR-awarded equaliser that earned them a bonus point in their own survival bid, West Ham ended the night in the drop zone.
Moyes said: ‘We’re gutted because we have given away two points too easily. We made some really poor individual mistakes and that cost us. I’m angry, disappointed with how we did things in the game.
‘Their first-half effort was humungous but there was a lot of fatigue in us and we gave them a leg up twice out of nothing.’ While
West Ham’ s defending for Brighton’s first two goals was awful, Brighton deserve credit for not letting their heads drop and forcing the situations that led to the home side’s mistakes.
Brighton boss Graham Potter has battled on this week after losing his father on Thursday following the passing of his mother in t he summer. He credited both of his parents for giving him the resilience to respond in tough times and setbacks and has instilled similar qualities into his team on the evidence of this comeback.
West Ham were cruising at the break. Diop poked them ahead from Robert Snodgrass’s free-kick and then, on the stroke of half-time, the Scottish midfielder benefited from a first slice of luck when his volley was diverted in by Adam Webster.
Costly error number one from West Ham came just two minutes into the second half when their goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski was too weak under pressure from Murray and could only punch Pascal Gross’s corner against Angelo Ogbonna’s head and watch the ball drop into his own net.
Snodgrass enjoyed more fortune just before the hour when his volley f r om Cresswell’s corner was diverted past Mat Ryan, this time by Bernardo. Game over?
It should have been but then came another West Ham calamity.
With his first involvement after replacing the impressive Michail
Antonio, Arthur Masuaku’ s attempted clearance was cut out by Trossard, Ogbonna and Diop initially left the loose ball to each before the latter tried heading it back to Fabianski.
The French defender’s contact was too weak and Gross nipped in to score, poking the ball past Fabianski and watching it dribble across the line.
Worse was to come. From Davy Propper’s cross, Murray controlled and fired the ball past Fabianski,
wheeling off in delight, the only person in the stadium oblivious to the fact that referee Michael Oliver had ruled it out for handball.
Murray was adamant he was innocent and Video Assistant Referee Andre Marriner agreed with him, eventually advising Oliver to award the veteran striker his goal.
Murray has barely started in the league this season, could have left during the January transfer window and has only scored once before arriving at the London Stadium. Almost inevitably, though, he had to be there to face West Ham and find the net.
They are his favourite opposition and this was his eighth goal in eight career appearance against the Hammers.
There view was along one, underlining how tough a call it was and the reaction of the home fans was furious when the incident was replayed on the big screens. But Moyes, who has now seen his side lose 19 points from winning positions, the highest total in the division, said :‘ I’ m more disappointed with what my defender done than VAR. We should have cleared the cross.’