A late VAR handball decision denied West Ham a draw at Sheffield United as Oli McBurnie’s goal proved enough to earn a 1-0 win.
David Martin, who had replaced the injured Lukasz Fabianski before half-time, misplaced a goal-kick straight to John Fleck eight minutes after half-time, and the Scot teed up his compatriot McBurnie to bundle in the opener from close range.
David Moyes would have been happy with his players’ efforts up to that point; the opening half had failed to produce a shot on target from either side, but the Hammers had gone closest when Felipe Anderson just missed the far post from a fine position.
But with the goal advantage and the introduction of Lys Mousset after an hour the Blades could have added to their lead, but Martin redeemed himself for his earlier error to keep out a low effort from the Frenchman with a fine stop.
It took the Hammers until the 77th minute to pull a meaningful save out of Dean Henderson from Manuel Lanzini’s free-kick, and thought they had earned a last-minute equaliser when Robert Snodgrass arrowed an effort in off the near post, but it was overruled by VAR for a handball in the build-up by Declan Rice. – Sky.
