Hart finds best way to leave England rivals in the shade
A borrowed baseball cap helped Joe Hart emerge as West Ham United’s FA Cup hero and might yet see him leave his England goalkeeping rivals in the shade for next summer’s World Cup.
On a weekend where Jack Butland and Jordan Pickford failed to cover themselves in glory for Stoke City and Everton respectively, he at least gave some food for thought over his faltering claims at club and international level. But Hart had to borrow the headgear from a Hammers supporter behind the goal to keep the sun out of his eyes, and the 30-year-old denied his old club with three first-half saves.
“I was very grateful – we have one in the kit van but Aaron Cress- well’s hair is that bad that apparently last game he took it and he is ‘rocking’ the Umbro cap!” said Hart. “I didn’t have one available so someone in the West Ham end very kindly lent me one. I would have taken a hat, sunglasses – all sorts, I couldn’t see a thing. I think the fans could see I was impeded and someone threw one on so I was grateful.”
David Moyes, the West Ham manager, blamed the sun as a factor after his side failed to bridge the 31-place gap between the teams.
“The conditions with the sun didn’t make it easy for players to see things around them,” he said. “But it didn’t stop the fact that we didn’t compete on all occasions. I don’t think we showed any quality. The disappointing thing for me was we didn’t show enough steel.
“When you come to these places you have to show you’re up to it physically and you can battle and compete, but that was probably the worst thing about it.”
Hart had missed the previous four games after being replaced by Adrian, but Moyes was sufficiently impressed by his performance to guarantee him Premier League games before the end of the season.
“Joe made a couple of really good saves and will play a lot in the Premier League between now and the end of the season,” said Moyes. “A couple of times people have asked me the question [about his response to being dropped] but he’s been very good. He’s been No1 everywhere he’s been but he’s got somebody here in Adrian who’s playing well.”
Shrewsbury boss Paul Hurst reckoned his side had faced harder tests against League One basement side Bury. “Yes them, Wigan, Blackburn – we’ve got them to come in the next league fixture – and different types of games,” he said.
“I don’t mean that being disrespectful to West Ham but I really felt the game was there to be won. It sounds silly but we’ve had tougher games.”
Shrewsbury were the better side from the start but just could not make their superiority count. Omar Beckles’ 25-yard drive cleared Hart’s bar by a foot before the Hammers keeper was forced into two crucial saves from Mat Sadler and Alex Rodman.
Shrewsbury remained the more likely scorers into the second half, even remaining untroubled when they were down to 10 men for several minutes after Sadler went off to have his gashed head bandaged.
The League One side continued to make a mockery of the two-division gap between the teams well into the second period.
Shrewsbury wasted another chance of glory when Jon Nolan blazed over from substitute Max Lowe’s pull back after Aristote Nsiala headed across goal and Josh Cullen was caught dawdling on the byline. Cullen went to hospital afterwards after losing two teeth, but it was the Hammers who were toothless on the day.
The teams will replay at the London Stadium in eight days’ time. Stoke are hopeful of appointing a new manager this week after the dismissal of Mark Hughes, with Derby’s Gary Rowett emerging as a serious contender for the Premier League strugglers.
Rowett and Martin O’neill, the Republic of Ireland manager, are both understood to be high on Stoke’s list of potential targets as they search for only their third manager since 2006.
Hughes was sacked on Saturday night, barely three hours after the abysmal defeat at League Two club Coventry, with the Stoke board bringing the Welshman’s four-anda-half year reign to an end.
Stoke wanted to give Hughes until the end of the season before reviewing his position in the summer, but eight defeats in 11 games forced them into taking action. Peter Coates, the chairman, and his