West Ham v Liverpool 29/09/96 3.00West Ham (1) 1 Liverpool (1) 2 FT Bilic 15 Collymore 3 Thomas 55 Stan Collymore's goal sparked Liverpool's seventh win in a row and kept them top of the Premiership. But he then limped off with a knee injury to leave them with a possible striker-crisis. Michael Thomas hit a second-half winner after Slaven Bilic had equalised Collymore's third-minute opener but by then the £8.5million forward had gone off with a damaged knee. With Robbie Fowler already missing with a rib injury it forced Liverpool manager Roy Evans to switch Steve McManaman to an emergency frontline role alongside Patrik Berger. Liverpool always passed the ball around with perfect composure but West Ham's undying enthusiasm threatened to win the match for the Londoners after Bilic had headed a 14th-minute equaliser from a Michael Hughes corner. It looked like West Ham would be overwhelmed after Collymore outpaced Marc Rieper onto Jason McAteer's through ball and drove it unstoppably past Ludek Miklosko. After Collymore had to retire from the fray Hammers took charge with a gutsy performance in which Julian Dicks hit the crossbar, Hughes was just over with a stunning volley and giant Liverpool goalkeeper David James was at full stretch to stop both Tony Cottee and Iain Dowie. But the turning point came seven minutes into the second half when Liverpool strung together a necklace of flowing passes ending with McManaman releasing Thomas for a scoring shot into the far corner. Hammers refused to lie down and when they introduced their latest Portuguese signing Hugo Porfirio with 32 minutes left it immediately revived their spirits. It was the tiny Porfirio who manufactured the opening from which Cottee sliced a good chance wide. Then the newcomer was in exciting action again, setting up Cottee for another chance which James smothered at the striker's feet. Liverpool, however, retained their composure and their possession to slowly take the wind from Hammers' sails. McManaman and substitute Lee Jones both passed up glaring chances to seal their success in the closing minutes after McAteer's shot shaved the crossbar when he was clean through. 
West Ham: Miklosko, Breacker, Dicks, Bishop, Rieper, Cottee (Dumitrescu, 76), Dowie, Moncur, Bowen (Porfirio, 58), Hughes, Bilic. Subs not used: Rowland, Lampard, Mautone. Booked: Bilic. Liverpool: James, Scales (Ruddock, 68), McAteer, Babb, McManaman, Collymore (Redknapp, 19), Barnes, Berger (Jones, 82), Thomas, Bjornebye, Matteo. Subs not used: Warner, Kennedy. Booked: McAteer. Attendance: 25,064. Referee: K Burge (Tonypandy). |
