West Ham are in the hat for tomorrow afternoon's FA Cup fifth round draw after earning a goalless draw at Anfield this evening.
The Boleyn Ground will see at least one more FA Cup tie after tonight's highly-anticipated clash ended 0-0, after both teams effectively cancelled each other out in a drab affair on Merseyside.However West Ham - minus the likes of goalkeeper Adrian, Mark Noble and new signing Sam Byram - could have been celebrating successive wins at Anfield had erroneous official Martin Atkinson spotted a blatant hand ball midway through the second half.
A tedious opening 45 minutes resulted in neither team creating more than the odd half chance, although Darren Randolph, deputising for regular number one Adrian - who is in Spain with his heavily pregnant wife - was forced to tip away a Brannagan effort ten minutes ahead of the interval.
Meanwhile the nearest West Ham came to scoring in the first half came from a Pedro Obiang effort, which missed its intended target by a matter of inches in the closing seconds of the half. In their defence, Slaven Bilic's side had already been (further) weakened by the enforced removal of James Tomkins (head wound) and Cheik Kouyate.
Here we go again! @whufc_official #WHUFC #COYI @EmiratesFACup #FACup pic.twitter.com/P47bU9pmcK
— James Tomkins (@TomkinsOfficial) January 30, 2016However the game's main talking point occurred just four minutes after the restart when a Dimitri Payet free kick was arrowed into the penalty box where it clearly struck the arm of defender Caulker's arm - not once, but twice. West Ham's players may not have appealed en masse, but quite how the errant Atkinson managed to miss it will be much debated tonight.
Overall Atkinson experienced an error-strewn evening, making a string of bad calls - including a blatant back pass by Smith to Mignolet that should have resulted in an indirect free kick to West Ham on the edge of the box and a shirt tug by Winston Reid that, had it been spotted, would have resulted in a penalty to the hosts.
Yet the referee's shortcomings aside, both teams struggled to make an impact in the final third although Liverpool did at least hit the target on six occasions, to West Ham's miserly single effort on target (from a total of seven efforts).
And the Hammers had Man of the Match Randolph to thank for ensuring Liverpool failed to breach United's defence on the rare occasion they fashioned a worthy effort on goal; the Irish international made two great blocks within 60 seconds in the final quarter-of-an-hour and also denied Teixeira from the game's best move on the hour mark.
The replay is scheduled for Tuesday, 9th February - tickets are already on sale to season ticket holders (priced £20 for adults and £10 for juniors).
Unbeaten for the second time in five months at Anfield! Replay in London. #GoHammers! #LIVWHU @whufc_official pic.twitter.com/RgXn9bJBa7
— Angelo Ogbonna (@OgbonnaOfficial) January 30, 2016
West Ham Utd: Randolph, Tomkins, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Obiang, Song, Kouyate, Moses, Payet, Valencia.
Subs: Howes, O’Brien, Collins, Oxford, Cullen, Antonio, Jelavic.
Liverpool: Mignolet, Clyne, Lovren, Caulker, Smith, Allen, Brannagan, Stewart, Ibe, Teixeira, Benteke.
Subs: Ward, Enrique, Ilori, Chrivella, Ojo, Sinclair, Randall.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (West Yorkshire).
Attendance: 44,057.
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