Lambert curses his luck as Carroll makes a point

andy caRRoll climbed off the treatment table to score a last-gasp equaliser and deny Paul lambert’s Stoke a precious victory in their battle for Premier league survival. the striker, out injured since the turn of the year, was sent on as a last throw of the dice by manager david Moyes on 86 minutes with West Ham trailing to Peter crouch’s opener. and, in the closing seconds, carroll fired home from the edge of the area to snatch a 1-1 draw which edged the Hammers further from the drop zone and left Stoke in serious trouble. ‘It is a blow for us because we were so close to winning,’ admitted lambert (below), whose side now sit five points from safety ahead of Sunday’s home match against high-flying Burnley. ‘I thought we were excellent. We had good chances for an away team, but I know they had a couple of goals disallowed, too. I couldn’t ask for any more from my players. ‘We were very good. We had good moments, good chances and we’ve been playing well. We’re willing to fight and we have got the fans behind us. a win on Sunday would really set the cat among the pigeons.’ West Ham had three goals disallowed on the night — two for offside and one for a dubious foul awarded by referee Michael oliver, the official who was at the centre of the highly controversial champions league tie between Real Madrid and Juventus last week. England boss Gareth Southgate was in attendance at the london Stadium to run the rule over potential players for the World cup. Joe Hart certainly didn’t help his case to be included in the squad for this summer’s finals, with the West Ham keeper making a dreadful error to gift Stoke the lead on 79 minutes. He spilled Xherdan Shaqiri’s shot straight into the path of crouch, who duly thumped the ball beyond his former England colleague. But enter carroll and, in the final minute, the big frontman stroked home a crisp first-time shot after the ball was played into his feet by aaron cresswell. It could have been worse for Stoke but Javier Hernandez had an even later goal disallowed for a handball by carroll. Hammers boss Moyes said: ‘I am really pleased with how we played. We dominated the match for long spells. ‘We certainly didn’t deserve to lose, that’s for sure. If we had, the football gods would really have been against us.’