Danny Ings threw his head skywards and let out what one presumed was a cry of frustration, not that it could be heard.
He had just steered an effort onto the roof of the net with an awkward, looping header on the stretch, no sort of chance really, on a par with the couple of half-openings that had found their way to him earlier in the night.
With Michail Antonio prepped and the fourth official’s board about to go up, he knew, though, that his race was run, and that a rare opportunity, just a third start of the season, had passed him by.
With less than an hour on the clock and his side two goals down against Olympiacos here, David Moyes turned earlier than usual to his bench, the changes sparking West Ham’s only real period of pressure and from the boot of substitute Lucas Paqueta a terrific strike that briefly threatened a late comeback.
In truth, though, that would have been harsh on the hosts, who were too good for a largely second-string Irons side, and on a night when all left the raucous Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium with ringing in the ears, Moyes did so without the selection headache he craves above all others.
West Ham’s infamous striker sickness pre-dates the Scot but has reared its head at unhelpful intervals throughout his second tenure and already, less than three months into the new season, it feels as if another bout is brewing.
There has been little scrutiny thus far of the club’s decision — conscious or otherwise — not to replace Gianluca Scamacca this summer.
Partly because the Italian did not exactly leave a gaping hole in terms of his contribution last term, and perhaps, too, for his short-lived stay offering the latest evidence that when West Ham do make significant investment at centre-forward, things seldom pan out as planned.
There were renewed attempts to sign long-term target Youssef En-Nesyri from Sevilla and strong links with Elye Wahi, now of Lens, but by the final days of a window in which a midfield rebuild had been chief priority, the impression was of a club content.
Antonio’s role in a fine start to the season put fears briefly at ease, the Jamaican scoring superb goals in the August victories over Brighton and Chelsea, but already that form has dipped and he has not found the net since.
On paper, then, last night ought to have been a chance for Ings to push for a first Premier League start of the season against Everton this Sunday.
Instead, the 31-year-old was painfully peripheral against the Greeks, managing just 19 touches, the fewest of any starting player on either team and only five more than Antonio, who came off the bench and played a part in Paqueta’s consolation.
Variety within a squad can be no bad thing, but Ings and Antonio are such polar opposites — a natural-born finisher with limited all-round game against a late striking convert whose best work comes away from goal — that the idea of the former being able to provide genuine competition or cover for the latter in a team built to play fast, physical football always looked fanciful.
Ings’s signing in the midst of a relegation scrap last January was one of necessity — and his goals in the vital win over Nottingham Forest that may well have saved Moyes’s job were worth the £15million transfer fee on their own.
The cost, though, was a contract until 2025 for a player now so clearly unsuited to the brief in a much improved team.
