West Ham 0 Stoke City 0 match report: Injury-hit Hammers struggle to break Potters down

West Ham United 0 Stoke City 0

Mark Noble (Getty Images)

This was one of the livelier type of goalless draw, exemplified by the last minute of added time, in which efforts by West Ham’s James Tomkins and Cheikhou Kouyaté were headed off the line. Not that Stoke would have deserved to lose, for until then their opportunities had been the slightly better ones; but Adrian in the home goal was as good as Jack Butland (right) at the other end.

The upshot was that both teams continue to sit in that overcrowded area of the table between the Champions League places and the relegation struggle. Earlier in the day, West Ham’s vice-chairman Karren Brady said the club want eventually to increase the capacity of the Olympic Stadium to 60,000 in response to heavy demand for season tickets and the locals appeared yesterday to be satisfied with the level of entertainment, applauding their side off.

They needed to make allowances for absent friends, for manager Slaven Bilic has been bemoaning the loss of so many attacking players in the worst run of injuries he has ever experienced, and has gone so far as to change training grounds from tomorrow in order to improve the quality of practice pitches.

Michail Antonio’s lively performance in a first start since signing from Nottingham Forest was a bonus for him, although Andy Carroll had little change out of an old-school battle with Ryan Shawcross, who retained his extraordinary record of not having seen a goal go past him in six League appearances this season.

Mark Hughes had picked four creative players to great effect in outwitting Manchester City last weekend but had to leave out one of them, Xherdan Shaqiri, because of stiff hamstrings, the Chelsea loanee Marco van Ginkel replacing him and wasting one glorious chance to score in the first half.

“A decent game to be involved in and we played our part in that,” Hughes said. “West Ham, with their injuries, went a little bit more direct than they normally do and we’ve taken a decent point in the end.”

Bilic was equally satisfied. “A very entertaining draw,” he said. “I told the guys the only way we’re going to compensate (for injuries) is with teamwork and team spirit, and we did that.”

After one powerful drive by Kouyaté early on, pushed away by Butland, West Ham were pushed back and should have fallen behind. Ibrahim Afellay continually whipped in dangerous crosses from the right and after Adrian kept out one of them with his foot, Van Ginkel somehow scuffed another one wide from seven yards.

When Afellay got in a shot of his own from a more central position, James Collins had to deflect it away for a corner; and after Glen Johnson crossed, Marko Arnautovic, deadly with a double against Manchester City, drove wide from not much further out than Van Ginkel had been.

Marko Arnautovic (Getty)

The home side’s only other possibility before the interval was gifted to them by Shawcross, presenting Mark Noble with the ball, then recovering with a fine tackle on him in penalty area.

Chances in the second half were more evenly divided. West Ham’s first ones, a glancing Carroll header and a volley by Antonio were soon matched by Arnautovic hitting a free-kick deflected onto the bar and substitute Mame Biram Diouf twice being thwarted by Adrian, who must make more saves than any goalkeeper with his legs.

In the final few minutes, however, Mauro Zarate drifted square before striking a post and then in the final flurry, Glenn Whelan and Glen Johnson saved their teams with headers off the line from the last of no fewer than 34 attempts on goal.

West Ham: (4-1-2-3) Adrian; Tomkins, Collins, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Song (Valencia, 64); Kouyaté, Noble; Antonio (Jelavic, 83), Carroll, Zarate.

Stoke: (4-2-3-1) Butland; Johnson, Shawcross, Wollscheid, Pieters; Cameron (Adam, 68), Whelan; Afellay (Walters, 66), Van Ginkel (Diouf, 55), Arnautovic; Bojan.

Referee: Andre Marriner.

Man of the match: Shawcross (Stoke)

Match rating: 7/10