West Ham beat 10 man AFC Wimbledon to reach the Third Round of the Carabao Cup. AFC Wimbledon took a shock lead after just 2 minutes. West Ham conceded a corner from which Pigott got up to plant his header into the top corner of the goal, Adrian got a hand to the ball but couldn't keep it out.
West Ham were without Arnautovic, presumably through injury, Antonio and Anderson were relegated to the bench. West Ham recalled young talent Declan Rice to the starting line up and Adrian replaced Fabianski in goal, I can see this continuing for all of West Ham's cup games.
At these point it looked like we could be seeing a huge upset, though there was plenty of the game time left for West Ham to respond, though a second goal for AFC Wimbledon would have heaped loads of pressure on West Ham.
West Ham were greatly helped when Wimbledon were reduced to 10 men when McDonald received a second yellow card for denying a goal scoring opportunity. He already had received a yellow card for a rash challenge on Snodgrass, so the referee had little option but to give the second yellow and therefore red card, this was a pity for AFC Wimbledon, they were doing quite well up to that point.
West Ham had all the possession but couldn't make it count and AFC Wimbledon went in at half time with the lead intact, something they would have been very grateful to do. This can have a great physiological advantage to a team, though they would need to survive the second half onslaught.
For this years competition the clubs voted to do away with replays or extra time, so any ties level at 90 minutes would go straight to penalties, so at this point AFC Wimbledon probably hoped that if they could hold out for the win it would be great, but if they kept West Ham down to just one goal they would at least have the chance to progress on penalties.
Indeed they held out until the 63rd minute when West Ham scored from an unlikely source in defender Diop. He hit a pile driver of a shot to make it 1-1 and save West Ham's blushes.
AFC Wimbledon were 9 minutes away from penalties when Ogbonna made it 2-1 from a corner kick and that was effectively game over for the 10 men of AFC Wimbledon, they had shown very little attacking intent, understandably with a man disadvantage against a Premier League side.
West Ham made the score more respectable with a Chicharito goal in injury time, a great through ball from Masuaku to Chicharito gave the striker half a chance, he still had a bit to do though, he took the ball round the goalie and got a little lucky with the ball squirming through the defenders legs into the goal.
So West Ham progress, we will be looking for a home tie and to avoid some of the big guns, hopefully the win will give the team some much needed confidence. For me the defence is still shaky, but I am sure Pellegrini is working on that aspect.
Next up is Wolves at home in the Premier League, which for me is a must win game.
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