It was a brilliant afternoon for Nottingham Forest fans as goals at the end of both halves gave them their first league win in 2024 after beating ten man West Ham United 2-0 at the City Ground. Goals from Taiwo Awoniyi and Callum Hudson-Odoi gave the home fans delight as West Ham fall to yet another defeat.
Nuno Espírito Santo made two changes to the side that lost at home to Newcastle United. Moussa Niakhate came out the defence as Brazilian defender Felipe came into the side for just his second league start since May. Danilo also came in as he replaced Ryan Yates after a disappointing performance last time out. David Moyes made two changes as well to the side that were dismantled by Arsenal. Ben Johnson and Tomas Soucek made way for Kalvin Phillips and former Forest man Michail Antonio after his return from injury.
The first chance of the game came to the home side. Hudson-Odoi getting down the left side and sending a ball across the box with it eventually coming to Morgan Gibbs-White who’s shot from close range was brilliantly saved by Alphonse Areola. A big chance for the midfielder who hasn’t scored in the league since the Reds last win against Manchester United.
With the final action of the first half, Forest took the lead. After a cross from Nuno Tavares was headed away only as far as Nicolas Dominguez, the Argentine gave the ball to Awoniyi who turned his man and slotted past Areola to give the Reds the lead. A second goal since returning from injury and scoring against West Ham for the third time after scoring in both his past two games against the Hammers.
That was it for the first half as Awoniyi’s strike gave the Reds the lead. Forest performing the better of the two sides and were seeing most their attacks start from the left side through Hudson-Odoi. The away side with a frustrating half as they struggled to create many chances against a resilient Forest side.
The chances kept coming early in the second half for the home side. After just five minutes, Gibbs-White distributed the ball to the right to Anthony Elanga and his touch brought the ball in the air in which he volleyed from and it was tipped over by Areola. Elanga coming close to scoring in back to back games after scoring in the deafest against Newcastle.
Another chance came for Forest. A poor clearance from a Forest set piece came out for Danilo on the edge of the box and his volley was punched away by Areola.
West Ham then reduced their chance of finding an equaliser after going down to ten men. On loan Manchester City midfielder Phillips with a high tackle on Gibbs-White and the midfielder got a second yellow and was sent off. A second red card for Phillips at the City Ground after being sent off for his former side Leeds United in 2019.
Forest then sealed the game in stoppage time. Neco Williams getting round his man on the right side of the box before fizzing a ball across the box with it deflecting to Hudson-Odoi to fire home from close range. Yet another goal from Hudson-Odoi who has now netted in three consecutive league games and is starting to show what an exciting player that Forest have on their hands.
That was the final action of the game as Forest pick up a big three points. A dominant performance from Nuno’s side ego pick up their first win since beating Manchester United in December. The Reds move up to 15th in the table and next travel to Villa Park to play Unai Emery’s Aston Villa side where they will be looking for back to back wins. A difficult few days for Moyes and West Ham after todays result in which they struggled to create clear cut chances throughout the whole game. The Hammers drop down to 8th in the table and next host Brentford in the Premier League where they will look to turn around this poor run of form.
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