A strong West Ham Xi were nearly embarrassed by minnows Altona 93 on the latest leg of their pre-season programme.
Slaven Bilic's side were forced to come from behind on THREE occasions in order to secure a draw against the plucky Germans, who enjoyed a man advantage for much of the game after Winston Reid was given his marching orders for dissent.Embed from Getty Images
Altona took an early lead through Nick Brisevac, who took advantage of a poorly-positioned Adrian to curl in a 20-yard free kick after just five minutes. However the Hammers were level within a minute or so thanks to a fine strike from Toni Martinez.
The hosts regained their lead six minutes ahead of the interval when attacking midfielder Dennis Thiessen once again left Adrian slightly embarrassed by beating him from distance with a dipping effort.
And it was get even worse for West Ham ahead of the interval when Winston Reid was dismissed for dissent, having already been booked for the same offence earlier in the half.
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Fortunately it took the Hammers just eight minutes of the second period to restore parity; this time it was Andre Ayew who drilled a fierce effort beyond the Altona 'keeper having put sent clear by a clever through ball from Pedro Obiang.
There was yet more disarray in the West Ham defence five minutes later when they failed to deal with a free kick that was converted from close range by Darius Strode, sending the Germans in front for the third time.
But United were to have the last laugh when Du Preez was credited with turning the ball over his own line, when trying to prevent a Nathan Holland strike from crossing the line.
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West Ham Utd: Adrian, Zabaleta (Byram 57), Reid ©, Ogbonna (Rice 57), Cresswell (Masuaku 46), Obiang, Fernandes, Arnautovic (Holland 67), Snodgrass (Fonte 46), Ayew (Makasi 70), Martinez (Chicharito 70)
Sub not used: Hart.
Goals: Martinez (6), Ayew (53), OG (72).
Sent off: Reid (42).
Altona 93: Grundmann (Matthai 27, Grubba 46, Du Preez 61), Aniteye (Stode 46), Yilmaz (Kunter 46), Hosseini (Lechler 74), Buzhala (Holz 46), Brisevac (Wachowski 46), Rettstadt (Cayir 46), Hinze (Edeling 46), Novotny (Sachs 46), Schultz (Correia Ca 46), Thiessen (Hadid 46, Schultz 83).
Goals: Brisevac (5), Thiessen (39), Stode (58).
Attendance: 5,000.
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