West Ham United 1-1 Bristol City
Emirates FA Cup third round, London Stadium, Sunday 7 January 2024, 2pm GMT
West Ham United will need to win a replay if they are to reach the Emirates FA Cup fourth round after Bristol City held the Irons to a 1-1 third round draw at London Stadium on Sunday.
The Hammers looked on course to reach the last-32 for the seventh consecutive season when Jarrod Bowen scored inside four minutes, but Tommy Conway’s second-half equaliser means the two sides will face-off again at Ashton Gate on Tuesday 16 January, subject to live TV broadcast selections.
It had all looked to be going to plan for David Moyes’ men when Bowen scored his 14th goal of the season, timing his run perfectly to collect Lucas Paquetá’s through ball with his left foot, round goalkeeper Max O’Leary with a touch of his right and fire unerringly past covering defender Cameron Pring and into the net with his left.
But former Academy of Football coach Liam Manning’s EFL Championship Play-Off hopefuls had other ideas and levelled just after the hour-mark when Scotland U21 international Conway got in behind the home defence and fired low and hard past Łukasz Fabiański.
Arguably, West Ham should have been further ahead before Conway’s leveller as, following Bowen’s opener, Irish stopper O’Leary did well to keep out further efforts from Pablo Fornals, his own defender Pring, Tomáš Souček and James Ward-Prowse in the opening half.
At the other end, Bristol City’s best moments of the first period came shortly after after Bowen’s goal, when right winger Sam Bell got the better of Emerson, cut inside past Kurt Zouma and tested Łukasz Fabiański at his near post, then in added-time, when centre-back Rob Dickie’s header from a corner was well held by the Pole.
Bristol City started the second half the sharper of the two teams and Pring missed a glorious chance to level 12 minutes in, when he blasted Bell’s low cross wide of the far post.
However, it would not be long before the 9,000-strong travelling Cider Army had a goal to celebrate when Dickie and Joe Williams combined to send Conway through to score.
Unsurprisingly, conceding an equaliser gave the Premier League side a jolt and both Souček and Kurt Zouma headed over soon after. However, Bristol City continued to carry a threat, too, and Fabiański did well to hold Williams’ deflected shot in between.
Moyes brought on Maxwel Cornet and Danny Ings from the substitutes' bench in a bid to avoid the need for a replay, but the latter could only shoot wide with five minutes to play after O’Leary had made another important stop to keep out Bowen’s close-range shot.
The Scot will hope Bowen, Paquetá and Dinos Mavropanos are fit for the replay after all three suffered injuries on Sunday, too. Paquetá and Mavropanos were both forced off in the first half with what appeared to be knee and chest issues respectively, before Bowen suffered a leg injury in added-time at the end of the second half. West Ham do not have a Premier League fixture next weekend due to the mid-season break.
West Ham United: Fabiański, Coufal (Johnson 74), Zouma ©, Mavropanos (Ogbonna 39), Emerson, Álvarez (Ings 75), Souček, Ward-Prowse, Fornals (Cornet 75), Bowen, Paquetá (Mubama 13)
Subs not used: Areola (GK), Cresswell, Coventry, Benrahma
Goal: Bowen 4
Booked: Álvarez, Ward-Prowse
Bristol City: O'Leary, Tanner, Vyner, Dickie, Pring, Williams, Gardner-Hickman (James 75), Knight ©, Mehmeti (Weimann 75), Bell (Cornick 86), Conway
Subs not used: Bajic (GK), Nelson, Knight-Lebel, King, Wells
Goal: Conway 61
Booked: Williams, Conway, Pring
Referee: Graham Scott
Attendance: 62,477
