AFC Wimbledon 4 West Ham 2: Pellegrini suffers cup shock against League One strugglers

Joe Wright

AFC Wimbledon 4 West Ham 2: Pellegrini suffers cup shock against League One strugglers image

West Ham were stunned in the fourth round of the FA Cup as they suffered a 4-2 defeat to third-tier AFC Wimbledon on Saturday.

Wally Downes' side, who sit bottom of League One and are eight points from safety, inflicted one of the biggest cup shocks on the Hammers in recent years thanks to a superb performance at Kingsmeadow.

Wimbledon deservedly went ahead in the 34th minute when Kwesi Appiah converted coolly from six yards out, and it was 2-0 before half-time thanks to a slick finish from Scott Wagstaff, who had been allowed to stride unchallenged towards goal.

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Manuel Pellegrini made three changes at the break, with Felipe Anderson among those introduced, but Wagstaff flicked Appiah's cross into the bottom-right corner to make it 3-0 less than a minute after the restart.

Lucas Perez blasted home 57 minutes in as West Ham at last began to build some sustained attacking threat, and when Felipe Anderson's curling free-kick beat goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale at his near post, the comeback looked to be on.

However, a clever passing move down the left allowed Anthony Wordsworth to cross for Toby Sibbick to head in a fourth in the 88th minute and send a jubilant Wimbledon into the fifth-round draw.

Joe Wright

Joe Wright Photo

Joe is a Senior Editor at Sporting News. He was previously a sub editor and writer for Goal.com before spending six years as part of the Stats Perform editorial news service, covering major global sports including football, tennis, boxing, NBA, rugby union and athletics. Joe has reported live on some of the biggest games in football, including two UEFA Champions League finals, Euro 2016, the Confederations Cup 2017 and the 2018 World Cup final at the end of a month in Russia.