Late rally papers over cracks for hopeless Hammers
FOR the thousands of West Ham fans who disappeared into the east London night way before full-time, it will be hard to believe their team came close to salvaging the most undeserved of points.
Trailing by three with less than 20 minutes to play and having shown little appetite to attack, let alone score a goal, it was no surprise to hear the clatter of seats as the locals decided they had seen enough. Those who remained probably did so with the sole motivation of booing their team come the end.
And so it was difficult to comprehend five minutes of added-time arriving with the score at 2-3 and a roar of encouragement emanating from the by-now sparsely populated stands. How unjust it would have been, however, had this sorry mob nicked a point. West Ham were so poor that it is impossible to determine whether Newcastle have turned a corner with this victory.
Not that they were not good value for the win, for they took full advantage of West Ham’s generosity and ineptitude.
Their biggest crime was in not leading by five come half-time. It would have been fair to assume the second half of the rugby World Cup final would be the most one-sided contest of the day. The first 45 minutes here, however, rivalled that when it came to one team’s superiority and the other’s complete lack of confidence and cohesion.
‘It should have been four or five at half-time and that would have been a true reflection,’ said Steve Bruce, whose team scored more than one goal for the first time this season.
‘In the end you think it’s going to bite you and that would have been unfair on us.’ Bruce was right, though he must realise this could rank as their easiest game of the season.
Opposite number Manuel Pellegrini was at a loss to explain his side’s performance as their winless run extended to five matches.
‘It is really difficult to explain why we played the way we did in the first 45 minutes,’ he said. ‘Really, I do not understand why we played so, so bad. I am very concerned. We need to try and find the reason.’
The sight of Felipe Anderson seemingly refusing to sprint into an open space in front of him — and allowing DeAndre Yedlin to recover and steal the ball — captured the lethargy of a first-half performance that
must rate as one of the worst in the club’s recent history.
The home fans grumbled when Declan Rice turned attack into defence as he played the ball back into his own half from a promising position. But he had every right to flap his arms in frustration, for the negative pass was his only option.
Ciaran Clark had headed the opener in the 16th minute after Joelinton returned a Jonjo Shelvey free-kick and the defender turned in from six yards. Six minutes later it was two. Again a centre-back was the scorer, the unmarked Federico Fernandez looping his header over Roberto from a Jetro Willems delivery.
West Ham’s defenders stared at each other in search of answers but there was no angry inquest, more a shrug of indifference. They were just as passive moments later in allowing the brilliant Allan Saint-Maximin to burst clear but he fired straight at Roberto.
Shelvey then cracked the angle of post and bar and Saint-Maximin was twice more denied by the goalkeeper.
But Roberto was at fault as Newcastle made it three after 51 minutes. Shelvey’s 25-yard free-kick was well struck towards the bottom corner but was by no means unstoppable. Roberto’s weak palms made it look otherwise and the ball squirmed through his grasp.
Belated hope of a revival was sparked when Fabian Balbuena stooped to head in from Anderson’s corner and Robert Snodgrass volleyed a second as the clock ticked past 90.
But Newcastle held firm to claim a deserved win. For West Ham, their late rally coupled with the empty seats spared their players a vicious barracking, and they could have had few complaints had that been the case.