LONDON: West Ham United debutant Kalvin Phillips gifted Bournemouth an early goal before the Hammers fought back to earn a 1-1 Premier League draw at the London Stadium on Thursday (Feb 1).
England midfielder Phillips, on loan from Manchester City, underhit an attempted backpass inside three minutes to give Dominic Solanke a tap-in for his 13th goal of the campaign.
West Ham manager David Moyes said Phillips was fine after the match and attributed the error to a lack of game time.
“As the game went on tonight, he was starting to get a bit better, starting to find his feet a little bit more, I thought he was just slow at the start of the game,” Moyes told reporters.
West Ham could have been two down but for a strong hand by Alphonse Areola to deny Antoine Semenyo, before Tomas Soucek spurned a good chance and headed over just before the break.
The hosts improved in the second half and equalised after 61 minutes through a James Ward-Prowse penalty, eventually awarded by VAR for Lloyd Kelly’s foul on Mohammed Kudus.
Phillips was replaced by striker Danny Ings as West Ham pushed for a win and created half-chances, though Bournemouth constantly carried a threat on the break.
The sides had to settle for a point each, however, and Bournemouth manager Adoni Iraola was happy enough.
“There’s a part where you have to value the point because we know it’s not easy to come to this stadium and get a result, but it’s true that, I think, if any of the teams deserved to win today it was Bournemouth,” he said.
Moyes also declared himself content with the result.
“I’m happy with a point, I’m not happy with the performance generally,” he said.
West Ham remained sixth in the table on 36 points and Bournemouth moved up to 12th place on 26.
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