Ugochukwu stuns West Ham to move Southampton level with Derby’s total

Lesley Ugochukwu’s added-time equaliser ensured Southampton equalled Derby’s record-low Premier League points total with a 1-1 draw at West Ham.

The already-relegated Saints were still on course to be crowned the worst team in Premier League history after Jarrod Bowen fired the hosts into the lead. But they were not even the worst team at the London Stadium for long periods of a dreadful game, and they snatched a deserved point deep into added time when the Chelsea loanee Ugochukwu drove home through a crowded penalty area.

The Southampton fans behind the goal celebrated like they had won the league, probably drowning out groans from Derby after they saw their record-low points tally of 11 from the 2007-08 season matched.

Meanwhile, to say West Ham have not got going under their new manager, Graham Potter, is an understatement. The Hammers have picked up an average of one point a game since Potter took over, which is a worse record than that of his much-maligned predecessor, Julen Lopetegui.

West Ham did almost grab the lead inside three minutes through Niclas Füllkrug, starting his first game since January after another spell out injured. The Germany striker got a toe to Lucas Paquetá’s ball into the box ahead of Jan Bednarek but his effort was well saved at his near post by Aaron Ramsdale.

Yet despite still not being mathematically safe from relegation – albeit with realistically little chance of making the drop – the hosts plodded through the first half with a bewildering lack of urgency. Southampton, with two wins to their name all season, were by far the more threatening side with Kamaldeen Sulemana teeing up Kyle Walker-Peters, who drove across goal and narrowly wide.

The league’s lowest goalscorers came even closer after half an hour when Jack Stephens’s shot was blocked by Paquetá with Sulemana thudding the rebound against the crossbar.

Boos rang out as the teams trudged off at half-time, and there were still thousands of empty seats when Bowen lifted the tedium a minute into the second half. The goal came from a Southampton corner, with Emerson Palmieri and then Mohammed Kudus strolling forward before finding Füllkrug, whose incisive pass played in Bowen to slam in his 10th goal of the season.

It was the 78th goal of a torrid campaign conceded by Saints. That almost became 79 when Füllkrug headed in a James Ward-Prowse corner at the far post, but the striker’s forearm into the throat of Ramsdale ensured it was rightly chalked off.

Saints’ chances of a point looked to have disappeared along with the ball after the substitute Tyler Dibling blazed over. But in the fourth minute of added time Dibling found Walker-Peters, whose cross deflected off Max Kilman and was lashed in by Ugochukwu.