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Enner Valencia inspires West Ham comeback against Stoke City Enner Valencia inspires West Ham comeback against Stoke City
(about 2 hours later)
Enner Valencia inspired West Ham United’s superb comeback from 2-0 down against Stoke City to dampen Mark Hughes’s 51st birthday celebrations. Mark Hughes was in no mood to celebrate his 51st birthday on Saturday night after Stoke City let slip a two-goal lead to allow West Ham United to purloin a point. “I’m getting older and we didn’t win,” the Stoke manager harrumphed. “So it’s not a particularly good combination.”
The Ecuadaor forward, almost anonymous in the first half as a lone striker in the absence of the injured Diafra Sakho, scored one and made Stewart Downing’s equaliser after switching to the left flank after Carlton Cole’s half-time introduction. Enner Valencia and Stewart Downing engineered a character-full comeback from 2-0 down to extend West Ham’s excellent start to the season, equalling their best since 1983-84. Amassing 17 points from their opening 10 games to sit fifth in the Premier League table, above Liverpool and Manchester United, is testament to the quality in depth that Sam Allardyce has built, and a style of play that may yet warm the cockles of Hammers’ hearts.
It had all looked so much a case of what comes after the Lord Mayor’s show as West Ham, having beaten Manchester City 2-1 last Saturday, went 2-0 down as Stoke took control through goals from Victor Moses and Mame Diouf. West Ham’s resurgence is also one in the eye for those who would have had the blunt West Midlander removed from office at the end of last season, and shows what standing by a good man can do. “The extra quality we’ve got this season has helped us get a point that was hard-earned if not necessarily deserved,” Allardyce said. “That’s about what a top-half team has to do to get something out of the game when you’re not necessarily deserving it. It speaks volumes for the character of the team.”
Hughes’s team responded to back-to-back defeats by Southampton, in the Barclays Premier League and then the Capital One Cup fourth round, in thrilling fashion as they produced one of their best first-half performances of the season. It had all looked so much a case of what comes after the Lord Mayor’s show as West Ham, having beaten Manchester City 2-1 last Saturday, went 2-0 down as Stoke took control with goals from Victor Moses and Mame Diouf.
Bojan, retaining his starting place, was instrumental in this fine start. Moses scored in the 33rd minute after Geoff Cameron’s cross towards Diouf fell for the diminutive former Barcelona player to shoot against James Collins, only for Moses to scramble the ball over the line for his first goal for the club. Bojan Krkic, retaining his starting place, was instrumental in this fine start. Moses scored in the 33rd minute after Geoff Cameron’s cross towards Diouf fell for the diminutive former Barcelona player to shoot against James Collins, only for Moses to scramble the ball over the line for his first goal for the club. Diouf and Steve Sidwell should have made it 2-0 just before half-time but the game looked safe when the former headed home Jonathan Walters’ superb left-footed cross in the 56th minute.
Diouf and Steve Sidwell should have made it 2-0 just before half-time but the game looked safe when the former headed home Jonathan Walters’ superb left-foot cross in the 56th minute. But West Ham got back into the game with a goal that came seconds after a two-footed tackle by Alex Song that could have caused serious damage had Diouf not taken evasive action.
But West Ham are nothing if not resilient under Sam Allardyce and, after Moses had swerved a shot just wide at one end, Valencia made it 2-1 at the other when diving in to head home Downing’s superb cross from the right. Only Cesc Fàbregas started the day with more chances created than Downing in the Premier League. “It’s a poor challenge,” Hughes said, before going on to criticise the referee, Chris Foy. “He’s out of control and it’s a good job Mame jumped out the way. The referee should have stopped the game there and then. But they went up the other end and scored. I thought referees were meant to stamp out, for want of a better phrase, those sort of challenges. He’s one of our senior referees so he’s got to do better than that.”
The game became a trade of chances, with neither team able to control the centre of the field, and Diouf headed Erik Pieters’s free-kick wide when scoring looked the easier option. Instead, Collins played the ball out to Downing, who scampered away from two men down the right wing before delivering a delicious centre that swerved past two defenders for Valencia to dive in and head home. Only Cesc Fàbregas started the day with more chances created in the Premier League than Downing.
Stoke were left to rue that miss when Downing drilled home from 10 yards 17 minutes from time following Valencia’s left-wing cross. This looked a banker for a low-or-no-scoring draw, with Sakho’s chance to become the first man to score in his first seven Premier League games postponed by a shoulder injury and Peter Crouch suspended, but instead we had a relative goal-fest. The game became a trade of opportunities, with neither team able to control the centre of the field, before Diouf headed Erik Pieters’ free-kick wide when scoring looked the easier option.
Stoke were left to rue that miss when Downing drilled home from 10 yards with 17 minutes remaining from Valencia’s left-wing cross.
This had looked a banker for a low-or-no-scoring draw, with West Ham’s Diafra Sakho’s chance to become the first man to score in his first seven Premier League games postponed by a shoulder injury and Peter Crouch suspended for the home side, but instead we had a relative goal-fest.