West Ham missed the chance to return to the Premier League's top four after a 1-1 draw with Newcastle, who moved four points clear of the relegation zone.

Craig Dawson opened the scoring for the hosts shortly after the half-hour mark, meeting Aaron Cresswell's free-kick in the box and powering a header into the corner.

Newcastle levelled just before the break when Declan Rice miscued a headed clearance into the path of Joe Willock who diverted the ball in.

Despite the gap between the two sides in the table ahead of kick-off, the contest was evenly matched and neither side was able to find a winner.

Newcastle goalscorer Willock hailed the impact of manager Eddie Howe, overseeing his 500th career league game.

He said: "It’s an important point. We had two important players injured, so we had to come here and stick to our task. Everyone had to be at it for us to come away with a point. 

"I thought we brought our game plan to them. We were very dominant in the first half and had moments in the second half. It shows how far we’ve come and how much the manager has instilled into us.

"[Howe] is a brilliant manager and a brilliant person. He’s a manager we all trust and we all buy into what he wants to do. We’ve got a great relationship with him. Long may it continue.

"That’s our objective. We’re looking up the table, not down the table. With the manager and the staff we have, we’re capable of going very far up the table."

Hammers manager David Moyes expressed his disappointment in the team's performance.

He said: "I’m thrilled with a point. It might be as bad as we’ve played this season. I’ve had words with the players on other days. I didn’t think it was needed today. Our levels need to come back up. I think if we improve individually, we’ll improve as a team. 

"I didn’t take anything else away from the game today. Intensity we’ve got and I don’t think physicality has been a problem. 

"Our ball retention, turnovers, not playing as well with the ball as we have done, not being as clinical in small moments — those things would come to mind before the physical side of things. 

"All I can hope is that we keep picking points up. We got a point out of it today. We’ll take that and move on, but individually we’ll have to start stepping up to the mark."

Did you know?

West Ham have scored at least once in all 13 of their home league games this season, the best such 100% record in the competition this term.

Newcastle have taken 12 points from their last six league games (W3 D3), two more than they managed in their previous 18 this season (10 pts — W1 D7 L10).

West Ham have netted 11 goals via set-piece situations in the league this season (excluding penalties), a figure only Liverpool (14) and Man City (12) can better.

Since the start of 2014-15, Dawson has scored 19 top-flight goals, more than any other central defender in the league, with 14 of those coming via headers.

Since the start of last season, no player has registered more assists direct from set-plays than Cresswell (nine, level with James Ward-Prowse), with the full-back providing 29 assists in the competition in total, a haul only Mark Noble (35) and Paolo Di Canio (31) can better for the Hammers.

Newcastle’s Willock scored for the first time in the Premier League this season (20 games), since netting in each of his last seven appearances of last season.