Fortunes finally came out of hiding for Nuno Espírito Santo and his hard-working Hammers at London Stadium, where they overcame several early setbacks to eventually force a 3-1 victory over Newcastle United, on Sunday afternoon.
“I’m very happy and everyone should be proud of our performance today,” smiled West Ham’s head coach after both securing his inaugural win since taking charge in late-September and the club’s first Stratford success for eight months. “When things went against us the reaction from the boys was good and I’m pleased with the way we did it because we were up against the ropes.”
Indeed, following a hat-trick of defeats to Arsenal, Brentford and Leeds United, it looked set to become another exasperating East End encounter, when Jacob Murphy gave the Magpies an early lead but Lucas Paquetá and Tomáš Soucek scored either side of a Sven Botman own-goal as the Hammers fought-back to claim three richly-deserved points.
“We’ve had a long week but it’s given us time to focus on individual improvement and the players looked a lot more confident,” observed Nuno, who recalled Freddie Potts, Mateus Fernandes and former Magpies marksman Callum Wilson following the loss at Elland Road nine days earlier. “It’s a little step in the right direction but it’s a very important one, too.”
Just four minutes were on the clock, when Jarrod Bowen’s 18-yarder thudded back off Nick Pope’s left-hand post, only for Newcastle to break upfield, where Bruno Guimarães fed Murphy, who drilled a low 18-yarder beyond Alphonse Areola’s outstretched right-hand glove.
Shortly afterwards, Bowen’s luck deserted him once more, when he was upended by Malick Thiaw but having initially pointed to the penalty-spot, referee Robert Jones reversed his decision after being referred to his pitch-side monitor and seeing the German defender had toe-poked the ball first.
Then, Paquetá’s low 20-yard free-kick was diverted onto that jinxed right-hand upright by Pope but just when Nuno seemed set for another luckless afternoon, those fortunes thankfully changed for the better.
On 35 minutes, Pope’s punched clearance fell to Mateus Fernandes, whose cushioned header allowed Paquetá to viciously volley a 25-yarder back past the Magpies ‘keeper.
Then, deep into first-half stoppage time, the sliding Botman steered Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s low right-wing cross into his own net to give West Ham an interval lead.
Despite making a treble-switch for the restart, Newcastle barely threatened, while Potts’ Man of the Match performance might even have been topped-off with his first senior goal however he was thwarted following another Video Assistant Referee review.
But seven minutes into additional-time, Pope failed to hold Bowen’s stinging shot and substitute Soucek bundled home to confirm that first home win since late-February.
“This week, there will be smiles on faces and it will be an easier place to do our work,” beamed Nuno clearly looking forward to Saturday’s visit of Scott Parker’s Burnley (kick-off 3pm).
“The supporters saw something in their team today and we can’t let all that good feeling go. We’ve shown our fans that they’ve got players who want to fight to change situations and get results. Now we’ve got to try to encourage them to make even more noise so that London Stadium becomes a very difficult place to visit for our opponents.”
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