James Ward-Prowse couldn’t hide his delight after powering West Ham United to three valuable points away at Wolverhampton Wanderers with a late goal straight from a corner.
The 29-year-old caught home goalkeeper José Sá off guard with a set-piece that sailed over everyone in the box and into the back of the net to make it 2-1 with just six minutes to go, after a Lucas Paquetá penalty had earlier cancelled out Pablo Sarabia’s spot-kick.
The visitors’ nerves were tested when ref Tony Harrington chalked off a Max Kilman equaliser for Wolves in the dying embers of ten minutes of added time, but they clung on for a first league win since the start of March.
While Ward-Prowse acknowledged his team were much improved after the half-time interval at Molineux, he discussed his emotions after notching his sixth goal of the season in such unorthodox style.
“I haven’t scored a goal like that since I was a kid!” he said. “It was part of the plan to shoot on target and hope someone could get a little touch, but I think the wind helped and now I’m probably going to get shouts to shoot every time!
“The performances before and after the break were night and day. In the first half we didn’t keep the ball or move it fast enough, but in the second we showed a lot more tenacity and aggression.
“Of course I would have loved to have taken our penalty, but Lucas is the designated taker at the moment and ultimately the most important thing is that it is converted. Lucas made sure he did that, at what was a really important time.
“I think overall we deserved the three points. It was a bit tense at the end, but we’ve shown a lot of character to come back, because you can crumble when you’re behind and things aren’t going your way.
“We’ve shown we’ve got that character, today and also in other recent games when we’ve come back from being behind. Emerson somewhat epitomised it this afternoon - he was disappointed to concede the penalty, but then he played a big part in the turnaround, and could have scored a goal.”
Victory in the West Midlands keeps the Hammers seventh in the top-flight standings and serves a blow to the hopes of one of their rivals for European qualification, ahead of Thursday’s UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg clash at Bayer Leverkusen.
With that mouth-watering tie up next and six games remaining on the domestic front, Ward-Prowse is optimistic about what he and his teammates can still achieve before the summer break.
The England international added: “It’s an important period of the season, so getting the three points is huge and it puts us in a positive position. We just need to make sure we don’t put ourselves in that position at the end again!
“We’ll take the momentum from today into the trip to Germany in midweek. I came to the Club for games and nights like that, so I’m really looking forward to it.
“We know Leverkusen are a good side, but we believe in ourselves. Hopefully we can go there, use the positives from today’s result and bring something back to London Stadium for the second leg.”
