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New Iron’s thrilling moment

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Armstrong Okoflex will be hopeful of another run-out against Brentford at the weekend after making a big impact against his former club Celtic at the weekend.

He grabbed his first goal for the senior team scoring with a fine low shot to complete the victory over his former club which he left last month.

It left him beaming notably as he had taken the law into his own hands after seeing his first effort into the box blocked.

The goal saw him receive some good natured banter from the Celtic fans who playfully jeered by a small section of the 18,500 home fans inside Parkhead.

Speaking to West Ham TV, the winger’s pride shone through as he recalled his big moment and stated his desire to work hard for further first-team opportunities.

He said: “It was a brilliant moment for me. I’ve worked hard this pre-season, I got gifted this opportunity which I’m grateful and I was just really excited to come on and I was happy with the goal.

“I think I found out about the [Celtic] fixture after I signed, but once I saw the fixture I was like ‘I need to make the squad!’ so I was happy I made the squad and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

“Today was a special day. In Scotland, the [COVID] rules are still tough, so they only had 18,000 when they usually have 60,000 here. It was always special to come and play here and I just happened to get on the scoresheet and that’s something I’ve been working on, so it’s just nice to score.”

Armstrong Okoflex celebrates his goal with Aaron Cresswell

Okoflex has spent the majority of the month with David Moyes’ first-team squad and has featured in pre-season matches at Leyton Orient, Reading and now Celtic.

Whilst he accepts his immediate future is at Academy level, he will take advantage of training with the first-team squad and work hard for further opportunities.

He added: “Obviously right now players are away, so I’m just happy and grateful the gaffer has given me the opportunity with the first team and all I can do is make the most of it and that’s what I’m trying to do.

“I signed to be a 23s player or push for the first team, so I’ll start with the 23s and work hard and I have to keep going. I’m just enjoying being here playing for this football club. That’s why I came, because I didn’t play too much football before I came here. I’ve got another game with the 23s on Monday, so I’m just excited to be here.”

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon