West Ham United vs Stoke City. Premier League.
Upton ParkAttendance34,857.
Sunday 13 December 2015 10:25, UK
West Ham's wait for a win goes on after a goalless draw with Stoke at the Boleyn Ground on Saturday.
A Hammers side short of injured key attackers has now gone six game without winning, scoring just three times during that run, and the better chances were created by visitors looking for a fourth win in five Premier League games.
Both teams hit the frame of the goal after half-time, and either might have won it during a chaotic final period, but neither did enough to warrant a win which might have taken them into the top six.
Stoke arrived on the back of a victory over Manchester City that brought comparisons with Europe's best, but their rebranding as 'Stokealona' seemed a touch premature on the evidence of an open and occasionally ragged game.
They had their moments, Ibrahim Afellay creating two early chances for Marco van Ginkel, who squandered the first when he opted to go feet-first at what would have been a free header six yards out.
The second was a sitter, shanked wide of the near post, and Marko Arnautovic missed the same upright from a similar distance after Afellay and Glen Johnson opened up West Ham's left-hand side.
The home side's list of absentees is well-documented, but they summoned a forgotten man for a first start as Michail Antonio - subject of a spoof 'missing persons' poster recently - was given a first start more than three months after a £7m transfer from Nottingham Forest.
The winger's unrefined menace was West Ham's likeliest source of a first-half breakthrough, and a second-half snapshot stung Jack Butland's palms on what was an encouraging full debut.
Andy Carroll's team-mates adapted to his style in the second half, but twice he was denied clean headers at goal by decent Stoke defending, and the best chances continued to come at the other end.
Arnautovic's free-kick clipped Cheikhou Kouyate before cannoning the crossbar and substitute Mame Diouf, on with Jon Walters as the Barca blueprint was reworked in search of a winner, side-footed Johnson's pass straight at Adrian.
Diouf repeated the trick in the last minute when a perfect Arnautovic ball sent him through, but West Ham gave as good as they got in a five-minute ding-dong at the end, and Butland was beaten when Mauro Zarate's shot bent back to hit his left-hand post.
The goalkeeper's impressive assurance deserted him in added time as he spilled a corner, but Stoke's massed defence came to his aid as Kouyate's header was kept out on the goal-line.
Player ratings
West Ham: Adrian (8), Tomkins (7), Collins (7), Ogbonna (6), Cresswell (7), Noble (6), Song (7), Kouyate (7), Antonio (7), Zarate (6), Carroll (6)
Subs used: Valencia (6), Jelavic (5)
Stoke: Butland (7), Johnson (7), Shawcross (7), Wollscheid (8), Pieters (7), Cameron (7), van Ginkel (5), Whelan (6), Afellay (6), Arnautovic (7), Bojan (7)
Subs used: Diouf (5), Walters (5), Adam (5)
Man of the match: Philipp Wollscheid (Stoke)
