West Ham ‘have to take advantage’ of Crysencio Summerville’s purple patch
Summerville came off the bench against League One Burton to score his sixth goal in his last seven games and send the Hammers through in the FA Cup.
Crysencio Summerville once again showed his importance to West Ham as they needed extra time to see off League One Burton and advance to the last 16 of the FA Cup with a 1-0 win.
Nuno Espirito Santo made 10 changes at the Pirelli Stadium against a team with big relegation worries of their own and the Hammers were labouring until the game moved into extra time.
But five minutes after the restart Summerville, an 83rd-minute replacement for Ollie Scarles, provided the inspiration that had been so sorely lacking inside the regulation 90 minutes, picking the ball up on the left touchline just inside the Burton half and bursting towards goal.
The 24-year-old beat two defenders before hitting a shot which deflected off Terence Vancooten to loop over Brad Collins for his sixth goal in his last seven games.
That run of form started in West Ham’s third-round win over QPR in this competition, and has fuelled a run of three Premier League wins in five to offer renewed hope in their bid to escape the relegation zone.
“He’s in a good moment,” Nuno said. “Summerville is full of confidence. Everything that he does seems to go well, so we have to take advantage of it.”
Summerville scored only once in his first 38 games for West Ham after joining from Leeds in the summer of 2024, with his first season curtailed last January when he suffered a hamstring injury. But he is in electric form at present.
“It’s confidence,” Nuno said. “With forward players you know how it is. It’s all about confidence because many of the actions are individual. He’s in a good moment, he’s working for the team, he knows that he can make the difference.”
West Ham needed someone to make that difference after coming up against a determined Burton side who held their own for much of the afternoon.
The team sitting fourth bottom of the third tier limited their Premier League opponents to a number of half-chances yet lacked the quality to test Alphonse Areola themselves.
The Hammers still had plenty to do after Summerville’s goal and were made to hang on for the last 20 minutes after Freddie Potts was sent off for a poor challenge through the back of Julian Larsson.
“I didn’t see the images so it was not fair for me to judge the decision,” Nuno said. “But I insist again, I feel Freddie Potts is not a violent player. He’s very fair. He’s aggressive, he has to be, but he’s not violent at all.”
Burton boss Gary Bowyer felt his side should have had a first-half penalty when Jake Beesley went down under a challenge from Konstantinos Mavropanos, but was proud of their efforts.
“The way we took a Premier League team to the last seconds of extra time is a credit to the boys and the football club,” he said.
“We started the game well. We knew they’d made 10 changes so it takes a while to get into the flow. Our pitch as well is a bit of leveller so we knew there were opportunities for us.
“In the key moments we haven’t quite been able to execute them and then it’s a piece of quality from Summerville. It’s what he can do, isn’t it?”
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