David Moyes was pleased with the impact made by his West Ham United substitutes as Andy Carroll climbed off the bench to secure a 1-1 Premier League draw with Stoke City.
The Hammers dominated the Potters for long periods at London Stadium, only to fall behind to Peter Crouch’s close-range strike with eleven minutes to play.
Moyes threw on Carroll and Manuel Lanzini – both of whom were available again after injury – and the former snatched a point when he volleyed home Aaron Cresswell’s cross in the final minute of normal time.
I actually thought all the subs who came on made a big difference – Chicharito, Andy and Lanzini all came on and helped it
David Moyes
“I thought we should have won. We certainly didn’t deserve to lose it and, if we had, the football gods would certainly have been against us because we bossed the majority of the game. In the main, we played really well. We played good parts of the game tonight because I thought, if anyone was going to go in front, it was going to be us.
“We played well from the back. We played the ball and did some good things and we just didn’t have that bit of something different up front. Marko and Arthur, who have given us a lot of goals and quality, just didn’t produce that.
“I actually thought all the subs who came on made a big difference – Chicharito, Andy and Lanzini all came on and helped it. We’ve not had those options very often this season so I’m glad to get them back.”
When asked why he did not bring on any of the attacking trio before introducing Chicharito with 14 minutes to go – three minutes before Crouch’s opener – the manager said he wanted to keep faith in his starting XI, who had dominated much of the second half.
“We didn’t need to make any subs because the team were playing well. We were dominant and in their half most of the time and were obviously trying to find a way through, so my feeling was that the goal would come.
“Stoke have been losing quite a few goals late on in games and I thought we could score late on and I didn’t think we needed it.
“The minute we went a goal down, we had to find another way of doing it and we gradually got the strikers on and we got the goal back.”
West Ham created 18 goal attempts and had the ball in the net four times in total, only for three of them to be correctly ruled out by referee Michael Oliver – two for offside and one in added time for a handball offence by Carroll.
“I have seen a couple of them and I think they looked like they were the right decisions, so well done to the referee,” Moyes observed. “The one that goes up to Andy I’ve not seen whether he handles it or not, but the referee did his job and did it well.”
After extending their unbeaten run to three matches, West Ham sit seven points clear of Southampton and Stoke and eleven above bottom side West Bromwich Albion.
All five of the Hammers’ remaining fixtures are against teams in the top nine, but Moyes believes his team have the quality to collect enough points to stay up over the final month of the season.
“It leaves us in a good position, far better than it was when I took over. We went 1-0 down and could have come away with nothing tonight, so the points we’ve picked up in recent games will all help us.
“We’ve had good results against some of the top teams, so let’s see if we can do it again. It’ll not be easy, but I think our performances are getting better and normally good performances lead to good results.
“We’ve just had a win and two draws and, at this time of the season, that’s not too bad.”