THE LEGEND THAT IS IAIN DOWIE
Stockport County 0 West Ham 1
David Moyes has respected the competition and opposition and put out a close to full strength side for the FA Cup 3rd Round fixture against National League Stockport County. West Ham have not won at Edgeley Park in seven visits. Jim Gannon is the Stockport County manager, and someone who played for Stockport in the League Cup 4th Round game against West Ham 25 years ago in December 1996. But the less said about that. The. Better.
This is the first game this season with Mark Noble starting where West Ham will presumably score. It is also the first AH game (after Haller), with a first start for Antonio since November. Three firsts. BT and the BBC fought over this game, so sure were they that it was the best chance of a 3rd Round upset. Though BT won the fight with more financial muscle, the first ten minutes of the game make it look like they missed out with the Beeb bagging Crawley Town v Leeds United.
Benrahma collects in the area from a great cross from Rice to curl in a shot that hits the base of Hinchcliffe’s left hand post but wide for a goal kick. Would have been a great first goal for the Algerian genius. Yarmolenko spanks one narrowly wide from 20 yards six minutes later. Referee Mike Dean holds the game up for a minute after three minutes of sustained fireworks booming off outside the ground, though how anyone could have bought them in lockdown, let alone lit them on this cold and slippery wet night, is difficult to imagine.
A quarter of the way through the game and it remains goalless, a fixture pitting clubs eighty-six places apart in the football leagues. It’s a bog marsh of a pitch which makes playing pure football a bit of a problem, but Benrahma fashions another shooting opportunity which he gets a decent contact on, but hammers wide. Lanzini hits the target in the 33rd minute but his shot, though not lacking power, is straight at Hinchcliffe. A few minutes later he puts Antonio through, but Kitching takes it off the big striker’s toes just as he’s pulling the trigger… Soon afterwards Antonio’s deflected shot wins a corner from which Ogbonna heads wide. A whole first half and still nothing to show for match dominance.
The early minutes of the second half show how slippery the pitch is, the ball getting stuck in puddles, a phenomenon that Stockport seem more able to accommodate than West Ham in their 4-5-1 formation. It’s proving a great leveller. Patience seems to be the wisest tactic for now.
The hour is up, and still no goals. Surely the 2020-21 Noble starting curse isn’t going to repeat for a third time? Benrahma, Lanzini and Rice are the architects, but of not very much so far. Soucek and Bowen are stripping off on the bench. There’s goals in them too, I would suggest. The pitch has proved a premature work over for the West Ham players, some of whom are already looking a little leggy. They can’t have played on surfaces like this many times in their respective careers.
The passes are beginning to go astray, shooting across the watery surfaces or stopping suddenly in the muddied puddles. Rooney and the substitute Richie Bennett have good efforts blocked as Stockport find themselves skating strictly across the muddy surface. This is beginning to look like a shock in the making. West Ham have done well not to look too vulnerable yet, and if they get to extra time, the fitness levels may yet tell. Benrahma has West Ham’s first genuine second half chance when the keeper is stranded but his chip is disappointingly mis-directed, and skids wide. West Ham gold numbers on black shirts have so far flattered to deceive, with just ten minutes left.
Not quite time for the roll call of cup banana skins, but I’m finding myself with my heart slightly higher than it should be in my weary frame when Coufal gets in a powerful near post cross that Bowen heads inches wide. Now a brilliant deeper cross from Bowen and Dawson has crept up unmarked on the far post to head powerfully home in the 83rd minute, putting Hammers ahead. In the end the goal thankfully kills the game, but it’s a fixture that West Ham will be glad to put behind them. We’ve seen West Ham lose games like this too many times to not be grateful for the victory.
35 Darren Randolph, 15 Craig Dawson, 31 Ben Johnson, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 41 Declan Rice, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 16 Mark Noble (c), 9 Saïd Benrahma, 30 Michail Antonio
Substitutes: 3 Aaron Cresswell, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 28 Tomas Soucek
Scorer: 15 Craig Dawson
