West Ham gift Southampton a point, amid tactical chaos

West Ham 1-1 Southampton West Ham managed to gift a point to relegated Southampton in this scrappy encounter at the London Stadium. Seemingly coasting to a narrow victory, West Ham manager Graham Potter must have wondered about the tactical wisdom of changing half the team in the last ten minutes. The defensive mindset of the home team was typified in the last ten minutes when gaining possession, with Southampton keeper Aaron Ramsey chasing back towards his goal, rather than take the chance, Tomas Soucek headed off to the corner flag to waste some time. He was quickly dispossessed. The first half was marked only by it's pedestrian lack of inventiveness. West Ham's best chance came when Lucas Paqueta crossed in for Niclas Fullkrug to test the keeper from three yards. The impressive Kyle Water Peters, then, saw his shot go just wide of the post. Ryan Manning then strode forward, with the ball rebounding to Kamaldeen Sulemana who hit the bar when it looked easier to score. The second half was a minute old when West Ham took the lead. A flowing movement started with Mohammed Kudus passing to Fullkrug who found the advancing Jarrod Bowen, who finished in the corner. The home side were denied what looked like a good goal, when Ramsdale fumbled a James Ward Prowse corner into his own net. But the keeper was adjudged to have been impeded by Fullkrug's jump. It didn't look like Southampton's day, as first Alphonse Areola saved Jack Stevens effort from the edge of the area and then Tyler Sibling blazed over, when well placed. But two minutes into injury time Sibling set up Walker Peters whose blocked effort fell to Lesley Ugochukwu to volley home. The result was no more than the relegated team deserved. West Ham head coach Graham Potter was "very disappointed" with his team's performance. "In the first half we struggled to get any real pressure on them. "There were lots of giveaways, cheap losses of possession," said Potter, who understood why the crowd booed his team off at the end. "I understand the reaction. There is no denying we've suffered at home this season. We need to control the game with attacking football - and we are some way off that." Potter indicated that there will be some substantial changes at the end of the season (he will hope to not be one of them). "There are loan players here,there and everywhere - we need to sit down and sort that at the end of the season." Southampton interim head coach, Simon Rusk, felt a point was the least his side deserved. "We were disappointed not to go in one up at half time. We deserved more than one goal today," said Rusk.