David Moyes was thrilled with West Ham United’s attitude and desire to fight back and claim a 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest.
Despite taking a third-minute lead in Sunday’s Premier League match though Lucas Paquetá, the Irons were 2-1 behind at London Stadium after Taiwo Awoniyi’s late first-half finish and Anthony Elanga’s sweeping strike.
The disappointment of conceding the lead was quickly forgotten, though, as Jarrod Bowen headed in from James Ward-Prowse’s corner just moments later to level the game.
Another Ward-Prowse delivery led to the winning goal too, with the No7 sending in a superb ball for Tomáš Souček to turn home.
While there were, of course, elements of the performance Moyes would like his team to improve on, the manager was full of praise for the heart shown by the Hammers in securing all three points.
In particular, the boss was pleased with West Ham’s chance-creating display, with victory ending a good week in east London for the Irons.
With the final international break of 2023 to come, Moyes is now relishing the chance to reflect on the win and give his players a well-deserved rest.
That was a great win before we go way on international duty.
It’s been a really tough period for us since the last set of internationals, so to win today and to also win in midweek in Europe against Olympiacos, we’ve finished this period off really well.
I thought we got better after Forest took the lead.
We hadn’t played well enough in the first half. We weren’t quick enough. Was it a bit to do with a little carry over from Thursday? It could be, but also it could be Nottingham Forest leaving us on the ball a bit. I thought we played okay but we were that slow in the first half that I was bored myself watching it at times.
Coming out for the second half, we wanted them to get much quicker with the ball, be faster, try and get more balls in behind and make more runs behind them. I thought we did that. Unfortunately we got done with a little bit of a sucker punch, went 2-1 down, but great credit to the lads because they picked themselves up and got the result.
I thought we created a good number of chances.
Again, especially in the second half, that was more like it. There was more happening that looked like we could get goals. Tomáš Souček had two big chances, and one of them hits the bar and the other is a good save from the goalkeeper. But, in the end, we got there and we got a couple of brilliant deliveries into the box for the win.
Every win you get is important.
It’s really hard to win in the Premier League and it’s also really hard to win when you’re coming out of a European game. It really is.
In between that, we also had a cup tie with Arsenal too and we won that one as well. We’re trying to win all the games that we can. Nobody can win all the games all the time, not even the big teams.
James Ward-Prowse’s assist record is unbelievable.
If I was him, I’d probably be a bit annoyed the lads haven’t scored more from my deliveries. He’s on ten but he could be on 12, 13 or even 14. But I’m really pleased with him. His deliveries are world-class and today we’ve done enough to get the goals.
Jarrod Bowen got another good goal.
I’m not sure if anyone was able to have a look, but he had one against Olympiacos and he nearly did the exact same thing. It hit the defender and went over the bar, otherwise it was a goal.
He’s a lot better in the air than people give him credit for. His timing is down and he is able to get in front of people. I’ve got to say, the reason he’s up front is because we’re not surprised by his ability to score. When you’re playing up front you want to get goals, and he’s got another goal today.
We’ve had two big months, so we’ll give the players a bit of time off now.
They deserve it. They’ve done well. We’ve had some games where it hasn’t gone our way but that’s certainly not because of their attitude or the way they apply themselves. They’re great boys. The attitude is superb and they’re really committed.
