Post Match report for the West Ham game - Wednesday, 2nd January 2019
PREMIER LEAGUE; West Ham v Brighton
ALBION GET TO RUN AROUND AT IRONS OVAL
VENUE; The London Stadium, Stratford - eleventh away game of 21 fixtures.
RESULT; 2-2 ~ Stephens, Duffy . (h-t 0-0) . SHAPE; 4-5-1 . REF; had a busy but A-ok professional ninety minutes.
PREAMBLE; it was now beginning of 2019 and start of that long hard grind ongoing into springtime - prior to possible light relief at Easter. And on the pitch it was forecast to be a similar experience.
GATE; 59,870 . WEATHER; cold but dry.
CHRIS HUGHTON had two men (Ryan & Jahanbakhsh) at the Asia Cup but otherwise could select from a near complete squad, thus giving tactical and/or rotation options.
On this occasion he elected to field last weeks preferred line-up with Murray now up front. Substitutes had multiple PL appearances between them.
Dan Burn had returned to BHA from on loan at Wigan but was not included in this match-day eighteen.
TEAM; . . . . . . . . 27 Button
. . 22 Montoya, 4 Duffy, 5 Dunk, 30 Bernardo
. . 20 March, 6 Stephens, 24 Propper, 9 Locadia
. . . . . . . 13 Gross, . . . . . . 17 Murray
BENCH; 23 Steele, 3 Bong (73), 14 Balogun, 7 Kayal, 8 Bissouma, 10 Andone (82), 11 Knockaert.
GOALS; 56 - 0-1. The keeper came to punch out a centre when under pressure. STEPHENS then let fly at the loose ball.
58 - 0-2. At another corner Gross provided the assist for DUFFY to chest down and stab an effort inside a post.
66 - 1-2. A chip forward to the big striker was not defended by Duffy and the ball went on through the legs of Button.
68 - 2-2. The ball was chased down the flank to the by line and crossed for the big striker to equalise off the bar.
INCIDENTS; 71 - Bernard had been run ragged during resurgence by locals offensive action but halted when injuring an ankle.
YELLOWS; 80 - March was considered overly competitive.
SUBS; 73 - injured Bernardo was replaced by Bong in like for like. 82 - Murray went off and Andone came on at point.
In the event, due to scoring circumstances, late changes were reactionary & practical rather than maybe earlier requiring to be equally inspirational.
ANALYSIS; after a tame first half the game exploded into life with soon Albion sucked into a false sense of security following taking a two goal lead.
Confidence seemed to turn into panic at the back once hosts two changes in personnel quickly took effect. Possibility of keeping a consecutive clean sheet evaporated in 10 manic moments as the game stretched to Olympic lengths.
Visitors took their foot off the pedal and were caught cold by an intense response from the home side, who just refused to roll over.
NUMBERS; shape 442-451, poss 54%-46%, on target 6-6, off target 8-7, corners 1-5, fouls 9-11, yellows 0-1, subs 3-2. MoM - Duffy
Happy New Year
FS
NEW YEAR TABLE: bottom half
Po . Pl . -GD . Pt
11 . 21 . -00 . 27 Everton
12 . 21 . -09 . 27 Bournemouth
13 . 21 . -05 . 26 Brighton
14 . 21 . -07 . 22 Palace
15 . 21 . -14 . 18 Newcastle
16 . 21 . -21 . 18 Burrnley
17 . 21 . -22 . 18 Cardiff
18 . 21 . -17 . 16 Southampton
19 . 21 . -28 . 14 Fulham
20 . 21 . -24 . 10 Huddersfield
