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West Ham United 1 - West Bromwich Albion 1
Summary:Albion came from behind to pick up a useful point in their last ever League trip to Upton Park. Chris Brunt's suspension forced Tony Pulis into a slight defensive reshuffle that saw Jonny Evans move to left back with Jonas Olsson and Gareth McAuley in the middle. West Ham took the lead after McAuley was penalised for grabbing hold of Diafra Sakho and Mauro Zarate curled a brilliant free kick over the defensive wall and past Boaz Myhill from 25 yards out. Pulis responded by bringing Rickie Lambert on for Stephane Sessegnon at half time and the ex-Liverpool man created the equaliser just five minutes later when he was fed by Darren Fletched and his shot bounced off the arm of Winston Reid to wrong-foot Adrian. Both sides had chances to win the game, Albion's best coming through Salomon Rondon who headed a glorious chance straight at Adrian's chest. The point lifted West Ham to seventh place and kept Albion in thirteenth. Mark Koppel:Really good fight back second half and the positive way we approached the second half meant that a point is now a bit disappointing. Well done as well to Tony Pulis for having the knowledge and experience to change things at half time which turned the game. Pity he didn't go even further and bring on Saido for Rondon. Player Ratings:
Subs-
oshawabaggie:Football's a funny old game. We were awful in the first half and the only result seemed to be a heavy defeat. Then, to Pulis's credit, Lambert came on and changed the game. I never thought I would be saying that, but his presence and calmness on the ball not only created the goal but gave Rondon the support he desperately needed. In the end we could easily have Knicked all the points, but that would have been harsh on West Ham. I thought Evans looked classy again and McLean worked so hard as usual, but my man of the match today would have to be Lambert. We still look desperately slow when up against any kind of speed. Our back line, except Evans, plus Yacob and Fletcher must make up the slowest defence in the league. Good structure, positional sense and shear guts helps to offset that to some extent, but I suppose that's why Pulis feels he has to play the ultra defensive style he adopts. I wonder how much JP will be willing to let Pulis spend in January when he has an 8 million pound Chester warming the bench? And what of Berahino? Can we still get 20 million for him? And how will we spend it? We need more speed from fullback and more creativity in midfield. Can we find it? Johno:Put together the first half last week against Arsenal and the second of today at WHU and we would have a good side. At half time I thought that TP would have to bring on Saido in place of Sess and couldnt beleive it when on came Lambert. Ho wrong I was and how right TP was. I also thought moving Johny Evans to LB was also inspirational. It worried me as to who would be playing there but he got it spot-on. He has been an excellent signing. |
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