Łukasz Fabiański had high praise for Michail Antonio after his West Ham United teammate brought up a triple-century of appearances in Claret & Blue in Saturday’s 2-1 victory at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Antonio stepped off the bench with his team 1-0 down at the break in the West Midlands, and played a key role in helping the Irons to three important points in the race for European qualification.
For Fabiański, Antonio’s impact came as no surprise, given the volume of outstanding work he has compiled in close to nine years with the Club.
The Poland goalkeeper has appeared in 148 of those 300 matches and was delighted the No9 reached his landmark with a victory.
“He has always delivered and to reach that number is great," he said. "Big credit to him and for his work ethic, because that speaks a lot about the way he is for this Football Club.”
Saturday’s success was another pointer to the team’s resilience, as they recovered from an insipid first-half showing to tame Wolves.
Lucas Paquetá’s 73rd-minute penalty cancelled out Pablo Sarabia’s earlier spot-kick, before James Ward-Prowse then scored direct from a corner to complete the turnaround.
There was still time for further drama as Max Kilman had a late, late leveller ruled out following a VAR review for offside against Tawanda Chirewa – and Fabiański thought the decision was spot on.
“You always have different thoughts when [goals go in like that] but there was a clear offside there," he explained.
“So, I think the referee made the right decision. He [Chirewa] was right in front of me, so in some ways he’s affecting my reactions because it cuts the time I have.
“Wolves played very well in the first half, but we didn’t play up to our standards. The reaction was great – we have a lot of quality and when we upped our intensity we came back into the game."
