Benrahma's red costs West Ham dear... and could be his final act

HAVING watched his Bristol City team knock West Ham out of the FA Cup last night, manager Liam Manning was keen to play down the significance of the Premier League side's attacking absentees.

- Malik Ouzia

"Not when you see what's coming in in place of them," Manning said, when asked whether the fact that Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta had succumbed to injury in the original tie gave his side fresh belief ahead of the replay at Ashton Gate, a response that really ought to have drawn more of a chuckle.

"They're swapping Premier League players with Premier League players," he went on to add, which is, technically, true, in much the same way that swapping the Christmas turkey for a packet of Fridge Raiders would be replacing poultry with poultry.

For all Konstantinos Mavropanos's error proved decisive, gifting Tommy Conway the evening's only goal, the Hammers were ultimately made to pay for their failure to put more than one goal past a mid-table Championship defence across the course of 180 minutes.