News

Slipshod Hammers fall to slick Palace

|

By Simon Leyland

Crystal Palace 4 West Ham 3

The opportunity to put further distance between ourselves and the drop zone was up for grabs as Crystal Palace hosted the Irons in a topsy- turvy, and  ultimately disappointing game at Selhurst Park which saw the better team win.

The Hammers got off to the perfect start after 9 minutes, when Bowen delivered an in-swinging corner from the right and Palace’s Michael Olise poor attempt at a clearing header dropped only to the edge of the six-yard box where our Czech midfielder was waiting to slam the ball home. 0-1

The euphoria of going one- up did not last long as Jordan Ayew got on the “wrong” side of Kurt Zouma, and ran on to a delightfully weighted through ball from the self-atoning Olise to fire a low diagonal effort past Lucasz Fabianski. 1-1

Zouma -injured

Shortly after that Zouma went down with an injury and Ogbonna had to come on to join Aguerd at the back.

Things then went from bad to worse; as on the 20th minute following a slip from Emerson, Zaha fired his side into the lead, side footing home at the far post after getting on the end of a low cross from Olise.  2-1

Then it got a lot worse on the half hour, when Schlupp caught Soucek napping about five yards outside his own penalty area, robbed him of the ball and advanced unopposed on the West Ham goal.

As Fabianski came off his line to try to deny him, Schlupp prodded the ball between the goalkeeper’s legs and into the back of the net. 3-1

But 5 minutes later, Michail Antonio won a corner for West Ham. The ball was sent into the penalty area, Soucek got a flick across the face of goal and Antonio nodded home from three yards out at the back post. 3-2

On the hour Eberechi Eze went down in the West Ham penalty area, apparently the victim of a tug on the shirt by Nayef Aguerd – VAR had a second look and it was given and Eze duly slotted the penalty 4-2

Then from a fortuitous corner, Soucek got a flick at the near post, sending the ball looping up in the air. Aguerd then got the faintest of touches at the far post and the ball ended up in the back of the net. 4-3 and that was how it ended.

To be honest, the only time we were vaguely threatening was from set pieces…

So another defeat, and we will have to wait until our rivals results before we know how bad the damage is

What was also disappointing was the changes rung by David Moyes at the break had little or no effect on the game. Also what was was the point of an 89th minute (!) substitution from Moyes when Cornet replaced Antonio?

A frustrating afternoon in south London.

Share this article

1 comment

  • Limey says:

    Poor performance all round, particularly from the officiating, referee gave a number of incorrect decisions, mainly in favour of the home team.

Comments are closed.