Charles the hero for QPR as West Ham are held in gripping London Stadium showdown
Championship
West Ham United (0) 1 Bowen 70
Queen's Park Rangers (1) 1 Madsen pen 18
A brilliant double save from Pierce Charles in the dying moments secured QPR a point in a very watchable Friday night mash-up between east and west.
Jarrod Bowen. having scored to cancel out a first-half penalty from Nicolas Madsen, had the chance to win it from the spot in the 90th minute after the Hammers had won a penalty from the Irons skipper's floated cross in from the right.
But QPR's impressive Northern Ireland stopper dived to his left to keep out the kick and then managed to spring up to palm a follow-up header from Arne Engels onto the crossbar.
On balance it was probably a fair result, as Rangers defended well to snuff out danger and restricted the Hammers to just a handful of chances - mostly falling to Bowen.
Tomas Soucek made a welcome return to the fray for the hosts after missing the first part of the campaign with an ankle injury picked up in the World Cup but the good news for West Ham did not follow the script.
After a very quiet opening, the Czech's well-timed tackled to dispossess a marauding Paul Smyth was erroneously interpreted as illegal by rookie ref Ruebyn Ricardo and, despite the considerable protests, a penalty was awarded.
Madsen then put away the unexpected gift by coolly rolling the ball home to Mads Hermansen's left and the confident Hoops - unbeaten in their four away games before this Friday night cross-town encounter - had even more reason to feel optimistic.
Rayan Kolli almost capped a fine breakaway, led by Kwame Poku, with a second Rangers goal, but Hermansen kept out the final curling shot with a full-length dive to his left. It underlined the fact the R's game-plan was working well for them.
The Hammers mostly enjoyed territorial advantage but created little of note in the opening half - their best effort coming when Bowen span smartly to send an overhead kick just off target.
In fact, the game was two-thirds over before the Irons got a shot away on target. Inevitably it was Bowen to the rescue.
He cut in from the right inside Tariq Lamptey - who had just come off the bench - to power a shot goalwards that was blocked, but he followed up to plant a firm right-foot shot into the back of the net.
Bowen fired just over then managed to squirm through defenders to trickle in a low shot that Charles had to scramble to touch aside. It seemed that the Hammers skipper was on a mission to win the game by himself one way or another.
And the chance was there in that dramatic finale after Rangers sub Amadou Mbengue pulled down Pablo to concede the penalty which seemed certain to signal a home win at the last. But Charles had other ideas.
West Ham are now unbeaten in seven league games but missed the chance to go top because of this stalemate.
The match was preceded by a heartfelt minute's applause after the passing of Ludek Miklosko - the Czech keeper who is held in so much affection at West Ham, and who also turned out for Rangers back in the day.
His heroics on the final day of the 1995 season is also something Blackburn Rovers fans should be grateful for. It was his saves for West Ham which denied title chasing Man United the win they needed that afternoon.
Hammers: (4-4-2) Hermansen - Walker-Peters (Austbo h/t), Mavropanos, Kilman, Morato - Bowen, Soucek (Pablo h/t) , Engels, Solomon (Piroe 68) - Mukasa (Orford 67), Castellanos
Hoops: (4-4-2) Charles - Adamson, Dunne, Clarke-Salter, Kemper (Lamptey 69)- Poku (Mbengue 80), Edwards, Kamara, Smyth (Vale 60) - Kolli (Kone 69), Madsen
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