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Defoe delivers again as Hammers cling to hope

Southampton 1 West Ham United 1

Ronald Atkin
Sunday 06 April 2003 00:00 BST
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With other teams picking up points in the wrestling match to get away from the Premiership drop zone, Jermaine Defoe did West Ham an enormous favour by hooking in the late equaliser which earned his team the draw their second-half comeback had merited.

West Ham remain four points adrift from safety but this result means they have now collected 11 points from their last five matches. The reality is that they have lost ground this weekend, but their manager, Glenn Roeder, said: "I learned a long time ago you don't worry about what you can't affect."

He praised what he called his team's "pro-active" attitude, as well as their desire and determination. Paolo Di Canio was nowhere to be seen yesterday despite Roeder's comment that the Italian is "100 per cent fit", but the manager added: "I want to talk about the players who were here."

As for Southampton, eggs seem to be in the FA Cup basket right now and there were people wearing the red and white stripes yesterday with Villa Park and next Sunday's semi-final against Watford very much on their minds. They did not, of course, include James Beattie, who walloped his 21st Premiership goal of the season and drew the comment from his manager, Gordon Strachan: "If anyone is worried about our semi-final they should watch the Beattie goal."

It was an excellent one, plundered out of virtually nothing just before half-time. The Southampton captain, Chris Marsden, restored to the side after behind held back for the past two games in case a yellow card might cause him to miss the Watford encounter, showed typical determination in winning possession on the left side of West Ham's penalty area. His volleyed cross looped beyond the far post, where Beattie shouldered Rufus Brevett out of the way before shooting low just inside the near post.

With the freshly introduced skills of Edouard Cissé and Frédéric Kanouté earning West Ham a greater share of the ball after the break, Southampton were forced back. Still a home win looked the best bet until, with seven minutes to play, the young full-back Glen Johnson took another of the prodigious throws which had been bothering Southampton's defence.

This one was launched from near the halfway line but flew all the way into the penalty area. Critically, it was not dealt with and bounced on for the eager Defoe to hook it past Antti Niemi. Off came the shirt and Defoe dashed to the corner of the stadium where the visiting fans were massed, celebrating the reprieve.

A Les Ferdinand miscue, Trevor Sinclair's header off target and a Lee Bowyer free-kick which soared over the bar was the sum total of West Ham's first-half efforts as Southampton gradually massed their artillery. Once Fabrice Fernandes began darting through they started to threaten but David James capably dealt with everything until the brink of half-time. Beattie's crashing shot was the first goal he had let in after posting five successive clean sheets, three with his club and two for England.

Needing to up the tempo and the pace, West Ham set about doing just that after the interval and Niemi denied Sinclair after 51 minutes with an acrobatic save when a West Ham free-kick rebounded from the wall. As the Hammers pressed there were openings on the counter- attack for Southampton to punish them but, as Strachan admitted: "Our passing wasn't good enough." Fortunately, there remains nothing wrong with Beattie's finishing.

Southampton 1
Beattie 44

West Ham United 1
Defoe 83

Half-time: 1-0 Attendance: 31,941

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