West Ham grab late win

We suffered late heartbreak in Saturday’s London derby as West Ham United struck an injury-time winner.

In a typically frenetic derby clash at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, a thumping second-half header from skipper Cristian Romero had cancelled out Crysencio Summerville’s early deflected opener for the visitors. But, despite plenty of pressure on the Hammers’ goal, we were unable to find the winner and instead, Callum Wilson netted a close-range strike to snatch the points and end their 10-game losing streak.

The game saw the debut of new signing Conor Gallagher, who produced an industrious performance in midfield, however there was an injury setback for us when Ben Davies was carried off on a stretcher early in the game.

Thomas Frank made three changes from last week's FA Cup defeat to Aston Villa with Romero, new boy Gallagher and Randal Kolo Muani coming in for Kevin Danso, Joao Palhinha and Richarlison. After Mathys Tel had fired over the bar in the fourth minute, the visitors opened the scoring after 15 minutes. Summerville picked the ball up to the left of our box, moved infield past a challenge and hit a shot which flicked off Micky van de Ven, beat Guglielmo Vicario and nestled in the back of the net. Unfortunately, at the start of the move, Davies was injured in a tackle and, after lengthy treatment on the pitch, was stretchered off to be replaced by Djed Spence.

We would have levelled in the 24th minute had it not been for a fine double save from Hammers goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, who kept out a Xavi Simons close-range header from Tel’s cross and then Spence on the rebound. It was end-to-end stuff, with Taty Castellanos heading over unmarked at the back post for the visitors before Tel arrowed a rising right-foot shot just past the far post.

The Hammers had the ball in the net again on 36 minutes, this one ruled out for offside after Jarrod Bowen had converted from close range but only after Vicario had initially made an excellent save to keep out a Summerville shot that deflected off Tomas Soucek. Our Italian keeper was there again shortly after, at full stretch to tip away a Kostantinos Mavropanos header.

Trailing at the break, we made another change at half-time with Archie Gray making way for Yves Bissouma, who made his first appearance of the season for us. And he was quickly into the action, stinging the palms of Areola with a fierce 25-yard drive. We started to play in more attacking areas as the second period opened up and had West Ham pushed back for the first 15 minutes, although a couple of attacks for the visitors saw Pablo with an acrobatic effort and Summerville denied by a strong van de Ven challenge.

The deserved equaliser finally came in the 64th minute and, in the end, couldn’t have been more straight-forward. Wilson Odobert down the right laid the ball back to Pedro Porro, he whipped in a wonderful cross which Romero met with a powerful header past Areola. Tails were up at this stage as we continued to apply the pressure on the Hammers, sending plenty of balls into the box from crosses and corners although we didn’t force Areola into a meaningful save until the 89th minute when he made an excellent diving stop to push away Xavi’s shot from the edge of the area.

We almost conceded two minutes into stoppage time when Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross found its way to Wilson, only for Pedro Porro to get across and make a superb block. However, from the corner, the ball bounced around the six-yard box with Wilson getting the final touch to poke it home. There was a VAR check for offside, but no reprieve for us. There was still time for us to launch a couple more attacks and a couple more balls into the box, but the Hammers defended for their lives, cleared their lines and held out for the three points.

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Romero 64; West Ham – Summerville 15, Wilson 90+3.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Davies, Gray, Romero, van de Ven, Spence; West Ham – Castellanos, Bowen, Soucek.

Referee: Jarred Gillett.

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Weather: Light clouds, light winds, 10 degrees.

Attendance: 60,857.