Denied at the death but a decent point at Brighton

Brighton 1 West Ham 1

With only one win in 16 games against Brighton this was a nervous watch on Sky. The team selection seems strange with Potts, Magassa and Wilson on the bench. Nuno's thinking is presumably to bring in fresh legs after Thursday's draw at Man United in the form of Rodriguez, Kilman, Summerville and Paqueta, who is back from the naughty step. 

Surprisingly it works really well as the Hammers five-man back line and low block frustrates Brighton. Wieffer misses a good chance but Brighton don't have a shot on target for 90 minutes. The maligned Rodriguez does pretty well in midfield and 'Stan' Welbeck is well-contained by the Greek Bloke and co. West Ham look dangerous on the counter with Paqueta on his best referee-loving behaviour testing Verbruggen from range and trying to feed Summerville whenever he can. One such ball finds Jimmy clear only for the returning winger to curl his shot wide when he should score.

The second half sees West Ham look the likelier side. Released thanks to Paqueta's tenacity, Bowen dribbles through the Seagull's defence to force a great save from Verbruggen, who then leaps up again to deny Summerville's overhead kick. 

Rodriguez comes off for Potts and Wilson replaces Summerville. Within 54 seconds of coming on Wilson does well to capitalise on Van Hecke's poor header and find Bowen, though it looks like the ball is a little overhit. But Jarrod, under close attention from Kadioglu, does brilliantly to fire home from an acute angle. Wow, it looks like a brilliant away win coming up.

Brighton almost equalise when the ball spins off Kilman's foot and Areola does really well to tip it on to the bar. Nuno possibly makes too many subs bringing on on Soucek, Magassa and Ezra Mayers for a league debut at left -back, though Diouf has had a decent contest with Minteh.

With 90 minutes gone Brighton still haven't had a shot on target are putting the Irons under severe pressure. Areola has to make a flying save from Kostoulas. In the 91st minute Rutter has a shot saved by Areola, Van Hecke keeps the ball alive and Rutter fires home in the melee. VAR intervenes as Rutter has handled before his first shot, but rules under some byzantine protocol that the handball hasn't led directly to a goal. Bizarrely VAR also ignores the overhead kick from Kostoulas that has whacked the six foot four Mavropanos on the head. The Greek Bloke was jumping too.

There's still time for West Ham to win a corner in the last minute that the Greek Bloke heads wide when he should hit the target. It's a decent point considering our poor record at Brighton, but we're still in the bottom three after failing to hold on to the win. A good performance though. Nuno has undoubtedly improved the defence, particularly Todibo, and Fernandes has had a really good game in midfield. Two points from Man United and Brighton away is a sign of progress. Irons!