West Ham’s second eleven dodged a bullet as one moment of brilliance proved the difference between two sides separated by 47 places in the football league.
In years gone by this could easily have been a banana skin for West Ham to slip and crash out of the competition but the quality available on the Hammers’ bench carried the day.
The anonymity of Lamadrid and Kanté showed the gulf between Premier League football and u21 level and has told Nuno that neither look ready for the step up. Magassa was ring rusty and Freddie Potts’ ill timed scissor challenge looked to be just that. Had Edson Alvarez had been the perpetrator he’d be vilified by the fan base: Potts however will probably escape public criticism and merely have to sit out Saturday’s Bournemouth fixture as a result.
Thank heaven for the other absentees ready to return next week: Bowen, Soucek, Wan-Bissaka and Fernandes enjoyed a well deserved weekend off after recent labours. Probably the most remarkable part of the whole afternoon was the aerial protest orchestrated by fans no doubt disgruntled at the bans handed out for overside banners.
Most Read on West Ham News
As the Independent put it:, Summerville may ‘have spared West Ham’s blushes” but “Before kick-off, Hammers fans had arranged for a plane to fly over the Pirelli Stadium calling on directors David Sullivan and Karren Brady to go, and this was hardly a performance to quell feelings of discontent”.
Make no mistake, this hard fought 0 – 1 away win was important if only as a bullet dodged and one less thing for fans to throw at the players or coach as they enter the most important three months in the club’s recent history.
Being in the fifth round of the draw, however it was achieved, is another modest step out of the deep dung in which the Hammers have been mired. At least we no longer have to watch performances like that regularly – as we did under Potter and Lopetegui. It was a blast from the past, reminding us that – until very recently, Hammers football used to be like that every week.
And for that, let’s be grateful.