Phillips would give Hammers control they badly require

LONG before the chaos of an added-time period crammed with enough incident to carry the highlights package on its own, this was a game of about as much control as a supply teacher's art class.

- Malik Ouzia

West Ham manager David Moyes described it afterwards as "a bit of a throwback", referring to the hail of long balls and throws hoiked towards each goal on a blustery Yorkshire afternoon, and the absence of much coherence or structure in the generous space often vacant in between.

The sides traded goals brought about by penalty-box ricochets and rebounds, then penalties themselves, both eventually finishing with 10 men and a share of the points.

A throwback? Perhaps, but it would hardly take a trip to The Big Match archives to find similar fare. West Ham's last two Premier League defeats - and the timing of Oli McBurnie's 103rdminute leveller for Sheffield United made this feel like another - have each come in contests if not as old-school in their constitution, then certainly every bit as open.

At the start of November, there was the 'you-score-we-score' affair at Brentford that ended in a 3-2 reverse, while a month later came a 5-0 thrashing by Fulham in which the traffic freeflowed rather more one way.