When West Ham United’s players returned to the away dressing room at half-time in a sombre state, having conceded three goals against Cardiff City, newly-appointed head coach Scott Parker called on Jarrod Bowen to galvanise his beleaguered side.
After criticising their first-half display that saw Cardiff’s Jack Moylan score a hat-trick in the opening 39 minutes, Parker asked Bowen to lead the team after the interval. The club captain duly responded. He assisted Divine Mukasa 13 minutes into the second half, provided a brilliant cross for Maximilian Kilman’s dramatic equaliser in the 82nd minute and was Cardiff’s chief tormentor.
“Our captain stepped up when we needed him,” West Ham defender Joel Veltman, 34, told The Athletic following the 3-3 draw. Ahead of this weekend’s away game against Blackburn Rovers, West Ham remain eighth and are five points behind league leaders Middlesbrough, who suffered a 2-0 loss to Wrexham on Wednesday.
“These boys have come off two defeats (to West Bromwich Albion and Southampton),” Parker said in his post-match press conference. “You come to Cardiff away and you’re 3-0 down at half-time. I could only imagine what they were feeling, but they showed a lot of character tonight. That pleased me the most, really.”
This was Parker’s first game in charge having officially succeeded Nuno Espirito Santo Wednesday morning on a two-and-a-half year deal. It was a frantic 24 hours for the club, with Nuno informed of his sacking Tuesday morning and the players not knowing until they arrived before 9am for training at Rush Green. Parker did not oversee pre-match preparations, which were handled by assistant first-team coaches Mark Noble, Steve Potts and Gerard Prenderville.
While Parker outlined his long-term ambitions in an interview with the club’s in-house media, Noble, Potts and Prenderville put the players through their paces. Training was more intense than what they were used to under Nuno, but there was a much-needed uplift in morale. The squad did not meet Parker until Wednesday morning at Stansted airport before their journey to Cardiff. Given the circumstances leading up to the match, the players were informed two hours before kick-off of the starting XI.
Despite not being named in the matchday squad, Pablo and Maxwel Cornet travelled with the team but Edson Alvarez did not make the trip to south Wales.
Parker’s first game in charge of West Ham was a mixed affair (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
During their first team meeting, Parker did not want to overload the squad with information. But the 46-year-old stressed it was important they displayed a good attitude, behaviour and mentality against Cardiff. There were five changes from the 3-1 home loss to West Brom, with Veltman, Dinos Mavropanos, who has recovered from a knee injury ahead of schedule, Soungoutou Magassa, his first start this season, Manor Solomon and Taty Castellanos all returning to the XI.
Parker had a warm embrace with Magassa at Stansted and mentioned he had scouted him when the midfielder played for Monaco. But like his team-mates, Magassa struggled to impact the game in the first half. There was no initial new manager bounce with West Ham conceding first in 11 of their last 17 fixtures when Moylan scored in the 11th minute. Parker chewed his chewing gum intently, while fans in the away enclosure showed their support with a rendition of Forever Blowing Bubbles.
Morato’s struggles at left-back continued when he conceded a penalty having brought down Moylan, who converted the resultant spot-kick. The Cardiff City faithful poked fun at West Ham’s woeful start by chanting, “You’re getting sacked in the morning” towards Parker. The nadir of the first half was when West Ham fans vehemently chorused, “You’re not fit to wear the shirt” towards the players in the 38th minute, only to see Moylan complete his hat-trick a minute later.
There were loud boos from the away end at the interval, with many of the travelling fans gesticulating at the players. Parker made three changes, with academy graduate Ezra Mayers, making his first appearance since August, midfielder Mohamadou Kante and forward Joel Piore replacing Morato, Magassa and Castellanos. West Ham upped their tempo and the substitution markedly improved their attacking play, with Piroe assisting Arne Engels for his first goal since joining from Celtic in August for a Championship record fee of £22million. Kante, Mayers and Tomas Soucek could have been match winners but squandered goalscoring opportunities from close range in added time.
Parker’s stated desire was to to see some fighting spirit and the best example of that took place in the 82nd minute. After receiving medical treatment, Kilman continued despite hurting his chest after colliding with his teammate Mads Hermansen. Two minutes later, the centre-back restored parity when he got on the end of Bowen’s cross, with the backroom staff and bench all embracing. The hard-fought comeback prompted gleeful West Ham fans to chant, “Are you West Ham in disguise?” to Cardiff’s players.
Max Kilman makes it 3-3 to conclude a dramatic comeback (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
“The gaffer was angry at half time, but he knew our situation,” Veltman added. “He said that we have nothing to lose now and we owe it to the fans to have a better second half. I think we were able to do that. Us as players spoke amongst ourselves and we were vocal about things that needed to be said. At half-time we needed to reset and get our heads together. After the match, the gaffer said we need to look forward and perform how we did in the second half for the rest of the season.
“He was proud of how we bounced back. With a bit of luck we could’ve won 4-3 given the chances we created. We need to learn from this game that we are capable of doing well. But we need to be on front foot, on the same page and have the attitude to show that. To concede three goals in the last three games is a stat we don’t want. But we will work on it with the gaffer. There’s one more game and then the international break and all the hard work will continue.”
The Scott Parker era has begun.
