Jarrod Bowen was a happy Hammer after his first goal scored as West Ham United captain helped the Irons secure a 2-0 Premier League win at Crystal Palace.
The skipper led by example at Selhurst Park, where the weather improved at the same time as the Hammers’ performance.
A rain-soaked first half saw the Irons escape falling behind on three occasions, twice when Eberechi Eze was denied and once when Odsonne Édouard dragged wide.
But the sun came out in the second half and West Ham celebrated by scoring twice in the space of six minutes, with Bowen playing his part in both.
First, on 67 minutes, the No20 was part of a move that culminated in Chris Richards’ hurried clearance falling to Tomáš Souček, who arrived late to fire home in trademark fashion.
Then, on 72, Bowen collected an inch-perfect diagonal pass from Maximilian Kilman, who had himself brought the ball out of defence impressively, and cut inside to finish unerringly with his left foot.
Speaking to West Ham TV alongside his fellow goalscorer, the 27-year-old was proud to celebrate his first competitive win as captain, and also to report that a Crystal Palace ball boy who was caught up in the celebrations was unhurt, taking Bowen’s shirt home with him and ready to play football himself on Sunday morning.
Jarrod, you spoke before the game about this being a big one for us to get a result from and we got it?
“Yes, we knew what it was about. We had the belief that we could win the game and coming off the back of the defeat, you always want to put it right in the next game. When it’s one game a week, it’s hard, but we had the belief that we come here and win the game. We knew it was going be difficult with how well they did last year with their new manager and their system. But we had the belief inside us, if we stuck to what we knew, to win the game, and we've done that.”
That is what big Tom does, isn’t it, arrives late and scores?!
“He scores, and then he spins around for ten minutes! No, he's always in the right position, always gets chances. It was the same last week as well against Aston Villa, he's always, always in the right place, and he took the goal beautifully. I was hoping it was going to take another deflection and fall to my feet! I’m buzzing for him, and he deserves it. He was massively important to us getting over the line today to get the three points.”
You are leading by example and now you’re off the mark for the season. You got 16 last season and will want to keep scoring?
“The first goal of the season is always the important one. You don't want to leave it too late and six games in you still haven’t scored. Sometimes it’s not all about goals, but as a forward myself, I pride myself on scoring goals, and today was another opportunity. As soon as I got the ball. I knew what I was going to do, and it was just about trying to execute it as best as possible. I managed to do that and now I'm off the mark for the season, so hopefully there are lots more goals to come.”
Lastly, while you were celebrating the first goal, a Crystal Palace ball boy got stuck under an LED board and it could have been nasty, but yourself and Tomáš went to his aid and he is OK?
“I saw him, and I think it was just instinct, especially when you’re parents now as well, you see anything with a child and you try and rush to the rescue, but I think we just managed to get him out before [anything serious happened]. Obviously it was not nice to see. When you score in front of the away fans, you know it's going to be, they're going to celebrate like they do, but the main thing was the kid is all right. He got my shirt, whether he wanted it or not, and he said to me, he's got a football game tomorrow, so he said he's ready for that, it’s all good.”
