Stoke City are denied crucial win by Carroll’s late strike
ANDY CARROLL scored a dramatic last-minute equaliser to prevent Stoke City from claiming a precious win over West Ham United 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 with West Ham trailing to Peter Crouch’s 79th-minute goal.
And within three minutes Carroll fired home from the edge of the area to snatch a 1-1 draw, which edged the Hammers closer to safety and left Stoke in serious trouble.
England manager Gareth Southgate was in attendance to witness two Three Lions strikers of old take centre stage.
But Southgate was running the rule over opposing goalkeepers Joe Hart and Jack Butland and it was Stoke’s Butland who at least won that showdown with Hart badly at fault for Crouch’s goal.
The Manchester City loanee fumbled Xherden Shaqiri’s shot and was too slow to react, allowing Crouch to stick out a long leg and stab the ball home.
But Carroll 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 as Javier Hernandez had an even later ‘goal’ disallowed, the third time the Hammers had the ball in the net without it counting.
Stoke remain in grave danger, five points from safety with four matches to play, but the result was a good one for Huddersfield Town.
They are seven points clear of Stoke and Southampton, although the latter have a game in hand, and 11 clear of bottomplaced West Brom.
Brighton manager Chris Hughton has no fresh selection concerns for tonight’s Premier League game with Tottenham.
Seagulls midfielder Davy Propper remains unavailable as he serves the second game of a three-match suspension following his red card against Huddersfield Townon April 7.
Winger Anthony Knockaert is pushing for a start, having returned from his ban as a halftime substitute in Saturday’s defeat at Crystal Palace.
Bayern Munich have been dealt a blow ahead of next week’s Champions League semi-final first leg against Real Madrid with the news midfielder Arturo Vidal needs surgery.
The Chilean suffered a setback on Sunday in his first training session since he sustained a knee injury against Sevilla earlier this month. He has definitely been ruled out of the German Cup semi-final against Bayer Leverkusen tonight.