West Ham 1-1 Brighton
by Paul Donovan
at the London Stadium

HONOURS ended even in a hard-fought contest between West Ham and Brighton in east London on Saturday.

The game did not really catch fire until the second half, with the two sides cancelling each other out for most of the first 45 minutes.

The highlights included a sharp save by Lukasz Fabianski from Kaoru Mitoma, collecting a cross from the left.

West Ham's best effort came from Jarrod Bowen who saw his shot across goal forced out for a corner by Brighton keeper Bart Verbruggen.

It only took five minutes of the second half, though, before the visitors took the lead. A cross from the left saw Fabianski and Lewis Dunk clash in a contest for the ball, which fell to Mats Wieffer, who drove it home.

West Ham weren’t behind for long, with Bowen breaking away to see his rasping shot pushed away by Verbruggen, only into the path of the incoming Mohammed Kudus, who headed home.

Brighton’s best chance fell to Mitoma, who collecting the cross from Yankuba Minteh, saw his shot bounce back off the post from a few yards out.

Fabianski saved the Hammers as the Seagulls upped the pressure, pulling off two point-blank saves.

Brighton may rue being over-elaborate and indecisive in front of goal, but West Ham should be happy to claim a point.

West Ham head coach Julen Lopetegui is keen to stay positive, and expressed post-match: “We can defend better with the ball sometimes. Our reaction when they scored the goal was good.

“We have to play better with the ball and compete better.”

Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler felt his team had plenty of chances to win the game but failed to take them: “Sometimes we were not clinical in their box. We were not able to finish the attack.

“We controlled the game quite well in the second half,” he added.

The Brighton coach felt his team need to learn to be more mature when they take the lead to leave the pitch as winners.