On the shortest day of the year, a game that burst only briefly into life. In the space of seven second-half minutes, from nothing and nowhere, things started to happen. Brighton took the lead. West Ham equalised. And then things stopped happening again.
The primary impression will be of two teams that started a hectic rush of festive fixtures as if their primary motivation was to preserve energy for the other ones.
Throughout the first half the creators of those chances were the only players who looked at all inclined to shock the game into life, with Bowen unique in also looking able.
Crysencio Summerville, a second-half substitute, robbed the ball off Jan Paul van Hecke and sprinted towards the area, but his shot was blocked; Yankuba Minteh... slid the ball across goal...
In a sleepy opening half-hour, such goal threat as there was came from a brace of far-post left-foot volleys, Emerson for West Ham sending Jarrod Bowen's corner into the thicket of players that stood between him and goal.
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