Goals from Diafra Sakho and André Ayew helped West Ham ease into the third round at the expense of their League Two opponents
That’s your lot! West Ham reach the third round of the League Cup thanks to late first-half goals from Diafra Sakho and Andre Ayew. It’s a first win of the season for the Premier League side, who were too slick for their lowly League Two opponents. Do join me for coverage of the third-round draw at 4.15am . Bye.
90 min: There will be three added minutes.
88 min: Almost! But Forster’s header from Storer’s delivery goes over. West Ham bring on Domingos Quina for Edimilson Fernandes.
87 min: Cheltenham win a corner on the left. Can they set up a grandstand finish?
83 min: Ayew loops a cross to Hernandez on the right. He’s tackled, but the ball breaks to Byram, whose firm cross has to be put behind in the six-yard box by Forster. The healed Obiang heads the corner over.
79 min: Pedro Obiang’s down after being caught on the heel by Kyle Storer.
77 min: Cheltenham are straining to find a way back into the game. West Ham continue to defend well, though. “A win tonight should boost our confidence for the relegation six pointer against Newcastle on Saturday,” parps Tom Shaw.
74 min: After a high ball drops for him, Pell slams a volley across the face of goal from the right and the sliding Holman’s inches away from a tap-in. Instead the ball trickles out for a goal-kick.
73 min: Back from a knee injury, Cheikhou Kouyate comes on for his first appearance of the season, replacing Mark Noble.
71 min: Ayew twists and turns on the right of the area, before trying to pick out the far corner with a curling effort. Just wide. Cheltenham make their final change, Dan Holman on for Mohamed Eisa.
67 min: Fernandes charges into space down the left, but his cutback’s put behind by Forster.
64 min: Replays suggest it should have been a Cheltenham penalty, assuming the offence took place inside the area. Masuaku clearly pushed Eisa after being beaten by the sprightly forward. Both sides make changes. Javier Hernandez is on for Diafra Sakho, while Brian Graham for Danny Wright is Cheltenham’s second change.
62 min: West Ham spring up the other end and remind Cheltenham of their threat, but Masuaku’s cross is just too high for Sakho in the middle. Back come Cheltenham. Eisa runs at Masuaku on the right and goes down, claiming that the left-back’s obstructed him. He wants a penalty and is furious to see his appeals ignored. The home fans aren’t happy either.
60 min: After offering little all evening, Cheltenham almost score! The ball’s pumped into the box from the right and eventually comes to Mohamed Eisa. His shot looks destined for the back of the net, until birthday boy James Collins throws himself in the way of the ball. Eisa has another go from the edge of the area, but it’s straight at Adrian and West Ham maintain their two-goal lead.
59 min: “Great to hear that the Sky commentators are not becoming overly hyperbolic by describing Declan Rice as having “the footballing world at his feet” after his third 1st team outing,” says Alastair Angus. “Steady now.”
I’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t win the Ballon d’Or next year.
56 min: Masuaku drives inside from the left and finds Sakho on the edge of the area. His shot’s deflected wide. Collins meets Noble’s corner, but his header fizzes inches over.
55 min: Cheltenham have barely had a touch since the restart. The upsetometer’s barely registering at the moment.
52 min: Everyone’s raving about Declan Rice. The Irish youngster is looking very assured on and off the ball for West Ham.
50 min: Masuaku diddles past a couple of challenges and briefly looks like he’s about to score a fine solo goal, but the ball runs away from him before he can shoot. West Ham have made an assertive start to the second half.
48 min: “Geometry was obviously not something that came easily to the Cheltenham town keeper when at school,” says Alastair Angus. “Shocking positioning for that second roll in, sorry, goal.”
46 min: West Ham get the second half underway. Cheltenham have made a change, Kevin Dawson replacing Will Boyle.
These are the other scores in the League Cup tonight:
Huddersfield 0-1 Rotherham HT
Newcastle 2 -2 Nottingham Forest HT
Southampton 0-0 Wolves HT
Blackburn 0-1 Burnley L
Stoke 2-0 Rochdale L
The half ends with West Ham threatening to add a third, Cheltenham defending desperately as they try to deal with a corner. Eventually Noble’s effort is blocked and the whistle blows. West Ham took their time, but they lead thanks to goals from Diafra Sakho and Andre Ayew. Cheltenham have worked hard, but they’re limited up front.
45 min+1: There will be one minute of the added stuff. “West Ham certainly are bereft in the pace department but Rice again looks like an assured young player,” says Alastair Angus.
44 min: “I’m delighted to see Bilic play three defensive midfielders against lowly Cheltenham when he only picked two against Premier League Southampton at the weekend,” says Terry Land. “When I say delighted...”
Liberated by the opening goal, West Ham turn on the style and double their lead, though it’s poor goalkeeping from Jonathan Flack again. Sakho’s first-time pass played Ayew through on the right, but the Ghana forward’s task was made easier by Flack’s decision to come off his line and open up the angle with bizarre positioning. All Ayew has to do is slip the ball into the very big target granted to him by the Cheltenham keeper and this tie looks devoid of drama now.
The pressure had been building. “Keep working, keep working!” is the shout from the Cheltenham bench, but gaps were starting to appear. Noble slips a pass through to the unmarked and onside Sakho, who turns and sorts out his feet before shooting from the edge of the area. It’s not struck with any power, but Flack is slow to react and the Cheltenham goalkeeper’s delayed response allows the ball to dribble into the bottom right corner. Relief for West Ham.
39 min: This is exceedingly sloppy at the moment.
35 min: Emails please!
31 min: Winchester’s back on his feet, but West Ham have stirred in the past few minutes and win a free-kick deep on the right after dawdling play from Cranston, who fouled Sakho. Noble’s delivery’s headed away from Collins by Grimes, though.
29 min: The first corner’s headed away from Collins at the far post, a vital intervention. The second one’s curled in from the right by Noble and met firmly by Ogbonna, whose goalbound effort’s headed off the line by Storer! Cheltenham try to counter as they clear their lines, but Pell loses it. All of a sudden, everyone realises that Winchester’s down on the edge of the Cheltenham area, in need of treatment. With Cheltenham down to 10 men momentarily, West Ham press on and Ayew’s released on the left. He slides the ball into the middle and Sakho looks certain to score from six yards, but his shot’s blocked by Flack! What an action-packed flurry! Eventually the ball’s put out for Winchester to receive treatment.
28 min: Sakho wallops a cross to no one in particular in the middle. Pell decides to volley it towards the goal-line, tries to retrieve the situation by bringing the ball down and knocks it behind for a corner. Oh dear.
27 min: Slaven Bilic wanted West Ham to bring in more pace in the summer. There is none in this side. Cheltenham win another corner on the right, Masuaku conceding it. This delivery is better from Storer and it’s powerfully attacked by Boyle, but his header lacks control and flies well over.
24 min: What a waste. Storer’s corner flies straight into the side netting.
23 min: Pell hoicks a high, hanging ball towards the far post from the right. The rangy Wright challenges with Collins, who does well to put him off, but Adrian can’t prevent the ball from going behind for a corner.
22 min: Pell’s felled by Masuaku on the right. A chance for Cheltenham to load the box in the agricultural style. Grimes rises highest in the middle, but his header hits his own man. The home fans appeal for handball, but it’s not the most convincing of penalty shouts.
19 min: There’s still no sign of a goal. There have been a couple elsewhere, though. Find out the latest scores here.
16 min: Cheltenham attack again, Eisa scheming on the left once more. However he can’t work space for a shot and the ball ends up in Adrian’s gloves after an aimless cross from Winchester.
14 min: Mohamed Eisa has been quiet so far, but the dangerous Sudanese forward wakes up here, brilliantly poking a pass through the legs of James Collins on the left and through to Winchester, who has a sight of goal as he makes his way into the West Ham area. However Winchester’s tame low effort is easily saved by Adrian.
13 min: Ayew, whose movement is causing problems for Cheltenham, scampers down the right again, peeling on to a slide-rule pass from Byram. He cuts inside, moving into the Cheltenham area, but with support arriving he chooses to shoot with his left and drags a poor effort well wide of the near post with his left foot, a decision that earns him an earful from his team-mates.
12 min: “Benitez would be a great choice for West Ham,” says Tom Shaw. “I’m afraid Bilic just isn’t up to the Premiership, nice guy but too naive tactically.”
It does look to be the case. The first season was enjoyable, but how much of that was down to Payet? Nothing seems to have improved from last season.
11 min: Cheltenham win their first corner, over on the right, but the delivery from Wright is lacking.
10 min: Noble lifts the corner deep to the far post. It’s headed back across goal by Ogbonna, but Grimes boots it clear.
9 min: Ayew pops up on the left and sees his cross diverted behind for the game’s first corner. “I’ll be watching the draw,” says JR in Illinois. “Of course it will be on at 10:15 PM here. I, like all right minded people, will be rooting for Chelsea to draw Aston Villa. Oh how I would laugh.”
Why, do Chelsea have a former Aston Villa player?
7 min: A tepid start.
5 min: Andre Ayew, a foreign man, skedaddles down the right and plays a clever pass into the area for Sam Byram, an English man who overruns the ball.
4 min: Britain. Britain.
2 min: According to the Sky commentator, apparently Mark Noble is in the West Ham team to make sure the foreign lads take the game seriously. The early signs aren’t encouraging: Pedro Obiang is wearing fake glasses and a moustache, Adrian is watching Netflix on his phone and Andre Ayew keeps making comedy fart noises with his armpit.
And we’re off! Cheltenham Town, kicking from right to left, get the game underway. “How shit must you be?” chant the West Ham fans. “We’re drawing away.”
Here come the teams, walking out to polite applause at Whaddon Road. Cheltenham are in red and white stripes, West Ham are in black.
“A minute by minute for this game?” says JR in Illinois. “Seems odd. Are you sure you aren’t paying the Guardian to do this to get your Hammers some pub?”
That’s offensive to the dignity and tradition of the Carabao Cup. I assume everyone’s staying up to follow the third-round draw, by the way? See you all at 4.15am!
So what of Cheltenham Town’s hopes of pulling off a famous upset? On the face of their results so far this season, not so good: a 2-1 defeat away to Morecambe Town, a 1-0 home win over Harry Kewell’s Crawley Town and a 3-0 reverse at Carlisle on the weekend. Early days, but it seems it might be a season of struggle for Gary Johnson’s side. That said, they made it this far thanks to a thrilling seven-goal thriller against Oxford United and four goals in four games suggests that Mohamed Eisa will be a tricky customer up front. West Ham are a Premier League side, but they have lost to Stockport, Northampton Town, Aldershot, Chesterfield and Sheffield United in this competition in recent years.
These sides have only met once before - in this competition four years ago. West Ham progressed at Upton Park thanks to a wonderful performance from a certain Ravel Morrison and went on to reach the semi-finals, where they acquitted themselves admirably against Manchester City, Roger Johnson coming up with a defensive performance for the ages.
Cheltenham: Flatt; Grimes, Forster, Boyle, Cranston; Pell, Atangana, Storer, Winchester; Wright, Eisa. Subs: Graham, Dawson, Holman, O’Shaughnessy, Bower, Thomas, Lovett.
West Ham: Adrian; Byram, Rice, Collins, Ogbonna, Masuaku; Noble, Obiang, Fernandes; Ayew, Sakho. Subs: Cresswell, Fonte, Kouyate, Hernandez, Hart, Haksabanovic, Quina.
Referee: Oliver Langford
Hello. Although West Ham came out as the home team when the draw for the second round of the Milk Cup took place at 3.17am in an abandoned warehouse in the Phantom Zone, the most successful stadium migration in history means that they aren’t allowed to play any matches in their own ground this month. Three cheers for the London Stadium, the gift that keeps on giving! Still, Cheltenham’s a nice place and West Ham have never been to Whaddon Road before. Plus it’s not like they have a long history of coming unstuck in comedy circumstances against unfancied lower league opposition in cup competitions. Isn’t that right, Iain Dowie?
All in all, you can see why this one’s been picked for live television coverage. It’s been a tricky start to the season for Slaven Bilic’s porous side and they could really do without messing up this tie. After opening with a 4-0 defeat to Manchester United, things took a turn for the farcical when they lost 3-2 to Southampton on the weekend. They’re without record signing Marko Arnautovic after his stupendously thick red card at St Mary’s, while Winston Reid is out – he injured his calf in the warm-up and had to be taken off on a stretcher, a day after signing a new five-year contract.
Encouragingly for Bilic, West Ham’s 10 men did manage to haul themselves level after going 2-0 down to a side that hadn’t scored a home goal since 5 April, only for Pablo Zabaleta to concede a last-minute penalty that Charlie Austin converted. Individual mistakes continue to prove costly and it is no surprise that Bilic has taken a strong squad to Cheltenham, who are 20th in League Two after one defeat and two defeats from their first three matches. With West Ham reportedly lining up Rafael Benitez, Bilic has no choice but to take this match seriously.
Kick-off: 7.45pm BST.