West Ham had to settle for a point against Swansea at the Liberty Stadium this afternoon having thrown away a third successive lead.
There will be a great deal of frustration in the West Ham camp after they contrived to throw away a winning position for the third match in a row, having been similarly foiled by West Bromwich Albion and Everton in 2015.However stand-in boss Neil McDonald - deputising for a sick Sam Allardyce - will be pleased at the manner in which his team ended the game, with Swansea mostly on the backfoot for the last 15 minutes of the game.
Andy Carroll gave West Ham a 43rd-minute lead with an exquisite piece of solo skill, turning on a sixpence before lifting the ball over the head of Lukasz Fabianski.
However the Irons' slender advantage was nullified just 16 minutes from full time when Mark Noble inadvertently turned Bafetimbi Gomis' header from a corner over the line - whilst the Swansea forward's marker, James Collins, was off the field receiving treatment.
The hosts' equaliser was the signal for a renewed push by McDonald's men, who ended the game in complete control without managing to find the killer touch that would have transformed one point into three.
Stewart Downing was inches away from restoring West Ham's lead on 82 minutes when his curling effort was tipped wide by Fabianski. The 'keeper was on hand again 60 seconds later to deny Man of the Match Carl Jenkinson's long-range effort.
James Tomkins was next to be denied when his goal-bound header from a Downing corner was hacked off the line by the alert Neil Taylor before both Aaron Cresswell and Andy Carroll were thwarted by Fabianski, who enjoyed a large slice of good fortune having spilled the full-back's free kick.
Sadly it wasn't to be and whilst the point is a reasonable return, there will be few returning from Wales to London tonight not thinking that it really should have been all three.
West Ham Utd: Adrian, Jenkinson, Tomkins, Reid, Collins, Cresswell, Noble, Nolan, Downing, Carroll, Valencia.
Subs: Jaaskelainen, O'Brien, Poyet, Amalfitano, Jarvis, Vaz Te, Cole.
Swansea City: Fabianski, Rangel, Williams, Fernandez, Taylor, Britton, Carroll, Sigurdsson, Dyer, Routledge, Gomis.
Subs: Tremmel, Tiendalli, Emnes, Barrow, Oliveira, Bartley, Fulton.
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