Lack lustre Irons fail to cope with lively Saints

Saints 3 Irons 1

By Hughie Southon

David Moyes played close to his strongest team but the Hammers could never cope with a Saints team that made nine changes from the weekend.

Mikey grabbed his first goal since New Year’s Day

Mikey Antonio raised our hopes with a tap in equaliser  – his first goal since New Years Day – but that was as good as it got for us tonight.

The south coast team opened the scoring with a wonder goal from distance from Perraud and after the equaliser they went ahead with a penalty from Ward-Prowse following a Dawson foul  with Broja clinching in the 95th minute.

The Irons looked pedestrian for long periods with – for me – Manu Lanzini being the brightest spark as he tried hard to create opportunities.

Zouma – despite some predictably boring booing – did well at the back and Diop, in for Cresswell produced another decent performance.

Tomas Soucek left the action in the second half when taking a boot in the face but looks likely to be okay for the match at Anfield at the weekend.

This, however,  was largely a lack lustre performance from the team although credit to  Saints who put in the shift and deserved the win.