Sad Hammers slump to shock defeat

Mikey missing

Hammers 2 Southampton 3

West Ham slumped to their third home defeat of the season as the very worrying run of recent results went on against Southampton – a team that hasn’t beaten us in several seasons.

And another blow was in Declan Rice receiving  a yellow card during the first half which rules him out of the trip to Vicarage Road on Tuesday should the game go ahead.

At times – notably in the first half – it was like watching the old West Ham as the south coast side bossed affairs during the first 20 minutes and then sucker punched us by adopting a counter attacking game far more associated with us to win.

They grabbed their first away win of in 14 attempts against a Hammers side who looked nothing like the one that had started the season so brilliantly but has now recorded just one win in the last eight games.

The visitors  went ahead via a great strike from Elyounoussi in the eighth minute before Mikey Antonio headed home from a Dawson assist three minutes after coming on for the second half.

A controversial penalty from Ward Prowse was equalised by Benrahma with a sweetly hit close range drive after great work saw Milkey hold off about four defenders to help set it up.

And with us all expecting the Hammers to give us a grandstand climax a shock winner came from the visitors with a header from Bednarek.

Mikey Antonio’s entry at half time looked set to spark the comeback as he gave us his best game in several weeks but it wasn’t enough to help us avoid a horrible defeat and more dressing room and terraces anxiety.