West Ham 1 Aston Villa 1
By Hugh Southon
After what we had seen in previous games the Hammers went out with something of a whimper but the day and the story is really all about Aston Villa.
The midlanders grabbed the draw and with results working out for them elsewhere they performed something of a miracle over the last few games to remain in the Premier League.
Jack Grealish played a part in both goals – firing home the first with minutes left before providing a huge deflection from sub Andriy Yarmolenko’s shot, which saw the ball loop high over his defence and keeper to ensure a desperate climax to what was really a pretty dull 90 minutes.
Ben Johnson impressed again – this time on the left side
The Hammers had of course done the job before kick off and it looked like that for long periods as they appeared to go through the motions which was always going to give the visitors a chance.
Mikey Antonio fired wide early on when clear on goal from a long Diop ball forward and Noble and Fredericks were regularly looking to get in behind but it was a game from which it was easy to be distracted by the coffee machine!
Diop and Ogbonna were always on the pace along with Soucek but Bowen was subbed at half time after taking that knock in the last game,
This was a day to look at the good bits – Soucek, Rice, Johnson, Bowen and the two central defenders – as we look forward to the new season which kicks off in September.
Despite today’s lack lustre performance we can feel confident that there’s enough in this squad to ensure we don’t spend another season like this one which finally came to an end 13 days short of a year.
A few will have to go as manager Moyes gets down to building that young and energetic squad he has regularly talked about
COYI