Tomáš Souček could not have wished for a better 27th birthday celebration than by scoring the winning goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers on his big day.
The West Ham United midfielder struck just before the hour-mark to settle a crucial London Stadium clash in his team’s favour, gaining three points which took the Irons back up to fifth in the Premier League table.
Perhaps just as importantly, the victory also increased the gap between the Hammers and Wolves to five points, boosting West Ham’s quest for a second successive European qualification as the business end of the campaign approaches.
Souček and his teammates gave a much-improved performance in the east London sunshine, with the Czech finding space inside the box at the right time, prodding home from Michail Antonio’s low cross and securing a hard-fought – and deserved – 1-0 success.
Immediately post-match Souček joined Declan Rice on Sky Sports to give their verdicts on a successful Sunday.
Tomáš, happy birthday, what a way to celebrate!
TS: "Thank you, this goal is maybe the best gift for what I could do for the fans and everyone. Also for my grandfather, who came here for the first time. He has supported me since my childhood, so this goal is for him. He’s 80 in a week, too!"
I saw you point to someone in that corner after you celebrated with your teammates, was that your grandfather?
TS: "Yes it was him. He wanted to come here before but couldn’t because of COVID, but finally he was here so I was happy to give him that gift."
It’s a heartwarming story! Declan, are you happy for Tomáš?
DR: "I’m delighted for Tomáš. He’s played so many games and so many minutes since he’s arrived. He’s been outstanding for us and is someone we’ve needed massively. We’ve relied on him – his goals, his defensive ability, he gets up and down the pitch and is great to play alongside. Today was him back to his best, working for the team, interrupting things and scoring a goal."
It was almost accompanied by a Declan Rice wonder strike in the first half…
DR: "Yeah. I’ve been trying to training to shoot more often and their midfielders kept dropping back into their box and I said to Pablo [Fornals] about five minutes before, ‘I’m free’. The touch set me up and I kind of used [Rúben] Neves’ body to set it outside him and it was unlucky. Hopefully one of those goes in soon!"
Dec, is that the next step for you? You have got more and more comfortable starting attacks, dictating play, so are goals the next thing?
DR: "I feel more comfortable now, I’ve grown into the midfield role. Adding goals is obviously a nice feeling. It’s nice to score goals, but my job is to defend as well. Someone like Tomáš who gets ten a season and arrives in the box as a massive threat, so I don’t mind sitting back. Three or four a season, I don’t mind, they all count!"
Tomáš, how important was the win today?
TS: "Very important, because we drew our last two games and we want to stay high in the table so it’s a massive result. I’m more happy for how we played, especially in the first half because it was great and we need to continue in this way?"
Is he right, Declan? As well as the win, was this a return to form?
DR: "Massively. I think you could see in our shape that we matched them up and we were on the front foot right from the start. That’s a mentality thing, going out there trying to run all over them. I think we regained the ball so much, missed some chances in both halves. Wolves are a great side and we knew that, but today we really upped our game, our level and we deserved it in the end."
You also showed your solidarity to your teammate, Andriy Yarmolenko, and the people of Ukraine. You wore the shirts in the warm-up and carried his shirt out as captain. How important is it to you that you support your mate?
DS: "It’s so important, for me, for the team, for everyone, the Club to support Yarma. The day it all started we saw him at the training ground and he was in bits – and so were all the lads for him.
"We’re all there for him, for the people of Ukraine. It’s horrible what’s happening. We’re all here with Yarma and that little tap on the shirt at the start of the game obviously brought us some good luck.
"He's got some family in Ukraine at the minute so he’s going through some tough times. We’ve all sent him messages and he said 'Good luck' to us in the group chat today, so I’m sure that brought us that luck today."