West Ham's top four chances look to be slipping away

Imagine. You set your alarm for 5am. You drive 300 miles to Stratford in the dregs of Storm Eunice. You get to the London Stadium in time for kick-off. You miss your team’s only goal.

Hundreds of Newcastle supporters had nipped out in a bid to beat the queues at the bars as we entered two minutes of added time at the end of the first half. Then they came streaming back in after hearing the eruption from those still in their seats.

Joe Willock cancelled out Craig Dawson’s opening goal and with that, West Ham’s hopes of a top-four finish suffered another setback. It’s looking increasingly unlikely they’ll be in those Champions League places come May.

Just look at the table. There’s Manchester United above them and below them, Arsenal, Tottenham and Wolves are chasing. If they win their games in hand, they’ll all go above West Ham. It’s not a favourable position to be in, and the jeers from the home fans at full time on Saturday contrasted the cheers from the Newcastle end. West Ham know if they want to finish fourth and join Europe’s elite, they should be winning these games.

Instead, they laboured to a draw with an uncharacteristic error from Declan Rice costing them dearly. The England man tried to head clear but instead sent the ball backwards to Willock, who equalised.

A worse defensive header will not be seen this season, and manager David Moyes didn’t try to hide or make excuses afterwards. He called out their performance for what it was — naff.

‘It is a long time since journalists talked about West Ham in a top-four chase,’ said Moyes (left), whose side face Wolves next. ‘We want to be that club and we enjoy the journalists talking about us in that way.

‘This was not a good performance. It was good we took a point