West Ham 1 Watford 0 The game is of course overshadowed by catgate and surprisingly Moyes has selected Zouma to play. If it's a dead cat strategy to distract the media from our performance at Kidderminster then it's certainly worked. There's no precedent for animal cruelty in football, but the board should surely have taken the decision to drop Zouma while disciplinary action was decided upon.
Zouma does in fact play quite well, but is booed (or is it catcalled?) by both Watford fans and some sections of the home fans. Diehard fans Fraser, Nigel, Michael, Matt and Lisa are all in the London Stadium for this crucial game and the tribute to young Isla Caton at the start is a better advert for football.
West Ham start slowly again and our passing is at times horribly awry, while Watford look much better organised under Roy Hodgson with their two banks of four smothering West Ham's creative players. Watford almost take the lead when a good break sees Kucka head wide when he should probably score.
The Irons raise themselves and a great reverse pass from Bowen sees Benrahma have a shot first blocked by Cathcart (was it handball?) and then fire against the side of the post.The second half sees more of the same with Watford time wasting and Fornals, Benrahma and Soucek all having quiet games while Antonio looks exhausted after his spell with Jamaica. Even Rice is at times affected (though he makes a brilliant saving tackle to prevent a goal that would have been called offside) and at times it resembles a tense relegation six-pointer.
JARROD MARCHES ON
Fabianski has to make a good save from Cleverley. Moyes acts by bringing on Lanzini for Benrahma after 60 minutes and the little playmaker does quicken up West Ham's attacks. Eight minutes later the breakthough arrives. Lanzini finds Bowen midway in the Watford half and Jarrod's shot takes a wicked deflection off Samir to deceive Foster. If you don't shoot you don't score and that's the piece of luck we needed. Bowen is now WHU's top scorer with 11 goals.
Josh King outpaces the Hammers defence and sets up Cleverley who blazes over. Bowen cuts inside his man and Foster tips the ball on to the post. There's a tense finish to the game and there's still time for the Vicar's Son to hurl some ungodly language at a dawdling Cresswell. We hold on though and the victory takes the Hammers into an unlikely fourth spot.
The players collapse at the final whistle having ground out a result while off-form, and Michael quotes Wellington, as you do, saying, "Both mind and feeling are exhausted. I am wretched even at the moment of victory, and I always say, that next to a battle lost the greatest misery is a battle gained." Though Roy Hodgson makes an unlikely Napoleon.
It's not been a purr-fect performance and you wonder how much the media storm affected the team as a whole. But it's still a good result and, of course, on 40 points we're finally safe. Irons!
PLAYER RATINGS: Fabianski 6; Coufal 6, Dawson 7, Zouma 6 (Cat Protection rating -10), Cresswell 5; Soucek 5, Rice 7, Benrahma 5 (Lanzini 7), Fornals 5; Bowen 8, Antonio 5.
