West Ham will have to make do with competing on just the two fronts for the remainder of this season after Southampton advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals at their expense. A trip to Seville in the Europa League next week and their tilt for a top-four berth in the Premier League will no doubt soften the disappointment of defeat here but there will be a lingering frustration for David Moyes given how his side allowed a game in their grasp to get away.
Romain Perraud rocked West Ham with a phenomenal, rasping strike from outside the box – it was some way to open his account for the club – before the former Southampton loanee Michail Antonio levelled in the second half. But James Ward-Prowse restored the hosts’ advantage with a no-nonsense penalty before the substitute Armando Broja secured passage into the next round, wriggling clear of three defenders before slotting home into the far corner.
Moyes could not mask his mood afterwards. “We are lacking quality at the moment in the final third,” the West Ham manager said. “We’re pleased for Mich [Antonio] that he got a goal but we’ve got other players that need to find some quality and start making the right decisions in the final third. I don’t know how many times tonight we made the wrong choices in and around the box, and it cost us. Our finishing and final pass was so poor, so poor. It was disappointing.”
It was a minor miracle that Southampton were not trailing when Perraud rifled his shot into the top corner beyond the West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola, one of two changes. Kyle Walker-Peters shifted the ball across the field to the Frenchman, who took one touch before blasting a left-footed shot that flew in from 25 yards, whistling diagonally across the West Ham goal.
Ralph Hasenhüttl, whose decision to make nine changes would be vindicated, jumped on to the pitch in celebration, while a clutch of Southampton substitutes stood to applaud. Stuart Armstrong, who arrived from the bench at the interval alongside Broja, hit a swerving strike from a similar distance against Coventry in the previous round. Hasenhüttl said both his voice and players needed to recover before visiting Aston Villa on Saturday. “What a goal,” he said. “The ball is a little bit lighter in the Cup so it is fantastic to shoot from outside [the box].”
For West Ham, a trip to Anfield is next in the calendar. Southampton could have doubled their advantage before the break but Adam Armstrong played a hospital pass to Will Smallbone, who tentatively joined the attack to the striker’s right.
In his technical area Moyes, arms folded, could be forgiven for wondering how his team had not taken the lead. Pablo Fornals, again operating from left wing-back, telegraphed a fine pass over the top of the Southampton back line to give Jarrod Bowen a sight of goal within the opening 67 seconds but Jack Stephens nicked the ball away to prevent the forward a shot at goal.
West Ham’s best first-half opening came when Antonio, who won the Football League Trophy with Southampton in 2010, stood up a cross from the left, after Tomas Soucek and Fornals combined down the left. Bowen rose in the six-yard box but could not direct his header on target.
Soucek was forced off early in the second half after requiring stitches for a stray elbow to the head but West Ham replied when Willy Caballero made a mess of a Bowen corner. The ball flew towards Kurt Zouma at the near post and Caballero failed to claim it, allowing Issa Diop to hook the ball towards Antonio, who fired in from close range to spark delirium among the almost 5,000-strong West Ham support in the Northam Stand.
But the joy was short-lived. Five minutes later Stephens’ quick free-kick exposed a gaping hole in the heart of the West Ham defence and Craig Dawson, in trouble when Broja beat him for pace, upended the striker.
The referee, Andre Marriner, was advised to visit the VAR monitor and eventually awarded a penalty, which Ward-Prowse emphatically slammed down the middle.
Dawson almost made amends but Caballero earned redemption, repelling the defender’s header with a minute of normal time to play, before Broja sealed victory in the fifth minute of stoppage time.
