Jarrod Bowen of last season might not still have been on the pitch. It is not that his 68th-minute strike – the difference between West Ham and Watford on an otherwise nondescript night – was particularly late. But if there was a criticism that could be levelled at the forward it was his lack of endurance; Bowen completed 90 minutes eight times in 2020-21.
A summer spent running in potato fields and mixing cement with his father has worked wonders. And here it allowed him to follow up a 120th-minute winner at Kidderminster, with another game-defining contribution. It was his 14th consecutive full stint here.
