Jose Izquierdo's wonder strike helps Brighton to beat West Ham and pull three points clear of the drop zone
Brighton & Hove Albion 3 West Ham United 1: The home side had not won a league fixture since 23 December but are now level on points with struggling West Ham
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.West Ham's week of turmoil ended with a 3-1 defeat at Brighton to plunge them back into the relegation mix.
Goals from Glenn Murray, Jose Izquierdo and Pascal Gross secured a priceless second win in 14 matches for the Seagulls to boost their chances of avoiding the drop.
Javier Hernandez was on target for West Ham, but it was a miserable end to a turbulent few days for the east London club, who had to sack their head of recruitment Tony Henry after claims he told agents they did not want to sign any more African players.
Anger and frustration towards the West Ham board from supporters is at an all-time high following the scandal, as well as an underwhelming transfer window which saw a club linked with Olivier Giroud, Michy Batshuayi and Daniel Sturridge end up with Jordan Hugill from Preston.
Indeed, the first chants of 'sack the board' were belted out from the away end even before Murray put Brighton ahead in only the eighth minute.
The goal came after referee Roger East allowed play to continue despite Aaron Cresswell's foul on Anthony Knockaert, and Gross immediately pinged the loose ball to Murray.
The striker, who scored twice in Brighton's 3-0 dismantling of Slaven Bilic's West Ham in October, strode forward and coolly sidefooted past Adrian for his 10th goal of the season.
Amid the off-field controversy West Ham boss David Moyes is also dealing with a spate of injuries and indiscipline - Arthur Masuaku is still serving a lengthy ban for spitting and Michail Antonio was dropped in midweek for being late to a meeting.
So it is to the Scot's tremendous credit that he has, until now at least, been ekeing out the points which have been keeping West Ham at arm's length from the relegation battle.
Moyes is also starting to get a tune out of Hernandez, and it was the Mexican who started and finished the move for West Ham's equaliser, first laying the ball off to Mark Noble who in turn prodded it forward to Joao Mario just inside the area.
The Inter Milan loanee flicked the ball back to Hernandez, who brought it on to his right foot before sidestepping both Lewis Dunk and Gaeten Bong and burying a fierce drive into the top corner.
However, midway through the second half Brighton retook the lead with a bolt out of the blue from Izquierdo.
The Colombian winger collected the ball on the corner of the penalty area and, with everyone in the ground anticipating a cross, curled a stunning effort over the despairing dive of Adrian and into the top corner.
This time Moyes and West Ham had no answer and with 15 minutes left their misery was complete when Gross collected Davy Propper's pass on the edge of the box and rifled a low shot across Adrian and into the far corner.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments