- West Ham United PL2 were held to a goalless draw at home to Brighton and Hove Albion on Monday evening
- The Hammers created a number of opportunities and dominated possession
- Manager Terry Westley was pleased that his side played with style
Terry Westley praised his players for playing with an identity, despite being held to a goalless draw at home to Brighton and Hove Albion.
The Hammers were looking to keep up the pressure on league leaders Swansea City with a victory but found it difficult to break their opponents down.
However, boss Westley was keen to focus on the style of play his players have developed over recent months and said his team were unlucky not to take the win.
“I thought we were good tonight. We were just lacking a goal but we kept a clean sheet and played with style which pleases me,” said Westley.
“I often say to the coaches, if you can play with a style, a panache, an identity, you’re half way there. We had that tonight, we dominated the ball and moved it about ever so well.
“We didn’t create enough first half, we played too much in front of Brighton but second half we went for the game a bit more. Both full-backs were getting crosses in and creating some good opportunities and on a different night we could have come out good winners.”
Westley made two changes from the side which ousted Norwich City a week ago – Domingos Quina returned in the midfield and Djair Parfitt-Williams made his first league appearance of the season having missed the opening stages of the campaign through injury.
The opening 45 minutes was a cagey affair with the Hammers looking to force the initiative. For all of their neat possession and build-up play, they struggled to fashion any meaningful chances, other than a Declan Rice strike which was cleared off the line.
Westley’s men emerged after the break looking a lot more threatening and could have taken the lead on a number of occasions.
Ten minutes after the interval, Moses Makasi found some room on the edge of the box and squared it to top scorer Toni Martinez, whose powerful strike was somehow pushed away by Brighton keeper Robert Lynch-Sanchez.
Shortly after, Domingos Quina fired a dipping free-kick onto the foot of the post before Martinez returned the favour to Makasi with a delightful flick; the midfielder forced another outstanding stop from Lynch-Sanchez.
Substitutes Dan Kemp and Jaanai Gordon combined with ten minutes to play but the former could not divert his effort on goal.
The Hammers continued to probe but they came up against a resilient Brighton backline in the second half and had to settle for a point.
“Norwich did similar to what Brighton did tonight. They came and matched us up man-to-man and that’s another complement to our players,” Westley added.
“It’s credit to our boys that teams are now playing us and changing their own gameplan to stop us.
“Browne and Quina were excellent tonight and also Dan Kemp who came on and looked threatening out wide. There were lots of positives out there tonight.”