Hammers stride on…and this player was amazing!
Irons 3 Domzale 0
(Hammers win 4-2 on aggregate)
No complaints …job done and we move on in our European adventure.
Having got off to a perfect start with that early goal from Cheik Kouyate and seeing him complete the frst brace of his career before the break, the Hammers could hardly have hardly have got away to a better start.
Feghouli added a cracker in the second, moving down the right and unhesitatingly firing past the keeper to put memories of that awful performance in Slovenia firmly in the coffin of hstory.
Kouyate will grab the headlines and he did a great job but for me the revelation of the night was young Reece Oxford at the back where he played with a composure beyond his tender age.
He was rarely troubled and has clearly grown up considerably over the summer and on this performance is probably in front of Reece Burke.
So let’s here no more talk of him being fancied at £10 million or whatever by the Manchester clubs – he looks a diamond and will be hard to overlook when Slav looks at his team for Chelsea.
A word too for Sam Byram, played out of position at left back and looking very good, partculaly with one penalty area interventio tackles in the second half.
Feghouli was tricky and clever whilst AC really put himself about, Mark Noble was brilliant and Michail Antonio had a terriic game going forward.
The crowd rose to what was a special occasion and we can all look forward with a bit more confidence than was the case this time last week.