West Ham 1 Stoke City 1: Watch highlights – Bojan Krkic scored his first away goal of the season to cancel out Michail Antonio’s opener

BOJAN KRKIC scored an equaliser for Stoke at the London Stadium to cancel out Michail Antonio’s opening goal.

It was a very cagey first half with only two shots on target, one coming for either team, Dimitry Payet came closest with a free-kick but his effort flew just over the bar.

The second half continued in the same fashion as the first 45 minutes as both sides kept cancelling each other out.

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Adrian had a hairy moment after he dropped the ball from a corner, but Cheikhou Kouyate cleared the ball which dropped to Phil Bardsley whose speculative effort from 40-yards went just over.

Stoke failed to clear their lines from a corner, giving Payet a second chance to deliver the ball and Antonio flicked a header at the near post past Lee Grant on the hour mark.

The Potters responded in the 75th minute through substitute Bojan, after Jonathan Walters beat Adrian to a bouncing ball in the penalty area and crossed it to the Spaniard who put the ball into an open goal.

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FACTS, STATS, GOALS & LOLS

• West Ham were boosted by the return of record signing Andre Ayew who made his first start since getting injured on his debut against Chelsea back in August. He managed 62 minutes before being replaced by Ashley Fletcher.
• Watching football shouldn’t be like this. A joyless experience at a stadium the nation once loved. Yes there was a heavy police presence inside for the first time – who at one stage waded in to try and help stewards force home fans to sit down – but do we really want to return to the dark days.
• Stoke missed the presence of Xherdan Shaqiri who was suspended for this match.

• West Ham co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan introduced a 10m sterile area in the lower tier to help segregate fans. For much of the match it felt like the sterile area had spilled over onto the pitch too judging by the football on show.
• Slaven Bilic had wanted to exact revenge on Stoke City manager Mark Hughes after losing to him as a Hammers player when they faced Chelsea 20 years ago. He failed in his mission.
• Egyptian midfielder Ramadan Sobhi made his first Premier League start but made little impact for the visitors.

• Unless West Ham start to buck up their ideas they could be in serious trouble. Their next Premier League fixtures after the international break is Spurs away, Manchester United away, Arsenal at home and Liverpool away  with another trip to Old Trafford in the EFL Cup for good measure. West Ham will do well not to be in the bottom three at the end of that sequence.
• Slaven Bilic spent most of the 90 minutes on the touchline. Presumably because it’s easier than to keep making the long walk back to the dug-out.
• Michail Antonio finally broke the deadlock in the 64th minute with his sixth goal this season. All six have been from headers.
• Mark Hughes’ late substitutions paid off. Bojan Krkic came on for Glenn Whelan on the 70th minute and scored four minutes later.

BIG PICTURE

 SOCIAL SAYS

DREAM TEAM RATINGS

WEST HAM: Adrian 5, Kouyate 7, Collins 6, Ogbonna 6, Antonio 6, Noble 6, Obiang 7 (Feghouli 89, 5), Cresswell 7, Lanzini 6 (Fernandes 62, 5), Ayew 6 (Fletcher 63, 6), Payet 7.

Subs not used: Randolph, Nordtviet, Zaza, Calleri.

Booked: Adrian, Antonio, Noble, Fernandes.

Goals: Antonio.

STOKE CITY: Grant 6, Bardsley 7, Shawcross 6, Martins Indi 6, Pieters 6, Whelan 5 (Bojan 71, 6), Adam 7, Walters 6, Allen 6, Sohbi 6 (Diouf 84, 6), Bony 6 (Crouch 71, 6). 

Subs not used: Muniesa, Imbula, Given, Verlinda.

Booked: Allen.

Goals: Bony.

WHAT THEY SAID

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic: “It’s a frustrating result but it’s a fair result. It’s a mistake by Adrian.

“It looked like he was never going to get to the ball. We gave that goal away very cheaply. We were 1-0 up with 15 minutes to go. A very cheap goal has cost us a win.”

Stoke City manager Mark Hughes:

“We went a bit more direct as we felt there was an opportunity there.

“[Bojan has] been a bit frustrated as he hasn’t had a lot of game time of late but he showed his quality.”