Hammers pay price for rare Rice slip-up
NO BLAMING the wind on this one. A worse defensive header you will not see and a rare mistake from someone usually so spotless. Declan Rice knows this wasn’t his greatest game.
West Ham were on their way to a win which would take them into the Premier League’s top four, then Rice’s calamitous attempt at clearing the danger gave Newcastle a return ticket.
The England man tried to head forwards but only sent the ball backwards and to Joe Willock, who equalised. Two points dropped, another setback in West Ham’s bid to join Europe’s elite.
‘Champions League, you’re having a laugh,’ sang Newcastle’s supporters. That’s the thing — if West Ham want to finish fourth, they shouldn’t be labouring to draws in games like this at home.
‘I was thrilled to take a point because we didn’t play well,’ said boss David Moyes. ‘It was one of our poorest performances of the season. I can’t say I’m enjoying it at the moment.’ On the goal they conceded, he added: ‘Incredibly soft. It was like the Keystone Cops that we didn’t get rid of it.’
The West Ham jeers at full-time contrasted Newcastle’s cheers. They’re now unbeaten in six Premier League games and their fans enjoyed themselves, even the ones who missed Willock’s goal. With it coming in first-half stoppage time, hundreds had nipped out in a bid to beat the queues at the bars. They came streaming back in to celebrate after hearing the eruption from those still in the away end.
They conga’d back in then conga’d back out for that celebratory pint. Eddie Howe could feel entitled to crack open a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale for Match of the Day, too, after seeing how his side coped without Kieran Trippier and Allan SaintMaximin. ‘It was a really good response,’ said Howe. ‘From the kick-off, we were really positive.’
Newcastle would have led after two minutes were it not for Lukasz Fabianski’s refusal to be nutmegged. It started with a freekick floated into the West Ham box which Rice failed to deal with. Joelinton stole the ball and tried to slip it through Fabianski’s legs, but it was saved.
Then it was West Ham’s turn to come close to scoring. Full of confidence, Jarrod Bowen tried to sweep his shot into the far corner. It would have nestled there, too, if Martin Dubravka hadn’t got his fingertips to the ball to push it onto the crossbar.
In the 32nd minute, West Ham had the lead, and the way this goal was scored annoyed Newcastle’s coaches. You imagine it cropped up in the visitors’ team meetings how lethal the
Hammers are from set-pieces.
Yet when Michail Antonio won a free-kick on the left wing after being flattened by Emil Krafth, West Ham made it 1-0. Aaron Cresswell whipped in a delivery worthy of a FedEx sponsorship and Craig Dawson headed in.
Newcastle’s high line did them no favours. It gave Dawson so much room to run into. Weirder still, instead of having Dan Burn or Chris Wood mark the dangerous Dawson, they went with 5ft 9in Jacob Murphy. He lost his man, and that man scored.
Newcastle made up for that error, equalising in first-half stoppage time. Ryan Fraser crossed and it should have been a simple clearance. Yet Rice headed the ball back towards the danger. It fell to Willock, who scored his first goal since signing permanently last August.
In the second half, it looked like the influential Joelinton might need to be replaced after clashing heads with Ben Johnson. He received treatment, continued, then four minutes later dropped down holding his head again. You’d think that would constitute a suspicion of concussion — the FA motto being ‘if in doubt, sit them out’, remember — but he carried on a second time.
In the 73rd minute, Said Benrahma was substituted and replaced by Nikola Vlasic. He and Moyes had words as he made his way to the bench, the manager feeling he failed to leave the field as quickly as he could have. A day and result to forget for West Ham.