BURNLEY 1
Wood (85)
west ham 1
Antonio (19)
Andy Carroll left West Ham high and dry as his reckless dismissal left them scrambling for a point against Burnley.
Carroll was touted for an England recall last week, but that particular bandwagon hit the skids as soon as the striker picked up two cautions in as many first-half minutes.
That left the Hammers with more than an hour to protect Michail Antonio’s freak goal – slotted into an open net after Ben Mee and goalkeeper Nick Pope both failed to connect with the ball – and Chris Wood pounced late to deny the visitors their first back-toback wins of the season.
Antonio’s 19th-minute opener at Turf Moor came from nothing more subtle than a heave upfield from Joe Hart. The Hammers forward set off in pursuit, but would not have got near goal had Mee not failed to make contact, nor Pope wave both ball and player towards goal. The only thing left for a grateful Antonio to do was roll into an open net.
Robbie Brady dragged the hosts into a response, shooting a yard over after brushing off Cheikhou Kouyate and causing flutters in the West Ham defence with a teasing free-kick.
And then Carroll bundled into centre stage. He had already shared a couple of asides with referee Stuart Atwell when he went up with James Tarkowski and was booked for leading with the elbow.
He pleaded innocence and then, around 90 seconds later, hurled himself into an even clearer booking, this time leaving his mark on Mee.
There were three changes for the second period, Burnley summoning Sam Vokes and Johann Berg Gudmundsson, while Bilic bolstered with Pedro Obiang.
It made for a wide open second period. Antonio just failed to connect with a chance at the far post, and was then denied by Pope after a snappy passing move.
Burnley regularly raided, but when Gudmundsson’s low drive landed safe after hitting both a post and Hart’s back, it began to feel like it was not their day.
However, Wood eventually salvaged a point, rising to nod Gudmundsson’s delivery beyond Hart and compounding Carroll’s guilt.