Let’s be honest! The Hammers versus Forest wasn’t a great game of football but it did show one thing – the players battled to get the result and in the process demonstrated that for all the discussion about the manager not being a favourite among some of them they are none the less prepared to play for him. However even David Moyes admitted: “I was bored myself watching it at times.”
To go behind against Forest is not clever having led and it is now six games since we have kept a clean sheet – and that was against humble Sheffield United – whilst managing to concede 12 goals along the way and losing three of them.
All that mattered this afternoon – well perhaps not ALL – was winning a game against a team that is still attempting to establish itself in the Premier League and we achieved that but let’s not kid ourselves it was convincing as going two one down from one nil up really isn’t the sort of stuff from which we can take any genuine confidence or comfort.
David Moyes was happy of course and afterwards delivered this verdict on the 90 minutes plus: “It’s been a really tough period for us since the last set of internationals, so to win today and to also win in midweek in Europe against Olympiacos, we’ve finished this period off really well.
I thought we got better after Forest took the lead. We hadn’t played well enough in the first half. We weren’t quick enough. Was it a bit to do with a little carry over from Thursday? It could be, but also it could be Nottingham Forest leaving us on the ball a bit. I thought we played okay but we were that slow in the first half that I was bored myself watching it at times.
Coming out for the second half, we wanted them to get much quicker with the ball, be faster, try and get more balls in behind and make more runs behind them. I thought we did that. Unfortunately we got done with a little bit of a sucker punch, went 2-1 down, but great credit to the lads because they picked themselves up and got the result.
Every win you get is important. It’s really hard to win in the Premier League and it’s also really hard to win when you’re coming out of a European game. In between that, we also had a cup tie with Arsenal too and we won that one as well. We’re trying to win all the games that we can. Nobody can win all the games all the time, not even the big teams.
James Ward-Prowse’s assist record is unbelievable. If I was him, I’d probably be a bit annoyed the lads haven’t scored more from my deliveries. He’s on ten but he could be on 12, 13 or even 14. But I’m really pleased with him. His deliveries are world-class and today we’ve done enough to get the goals.
We’ve had two big months, so we’ll give the players a bit of time off now. They deserve it. They’ve done well. We’ve had some games where it hasn’t gone our way but that’s certainly not because of their attitude or the way they apply themselves. They’re great boys. The attitude is superb and they’re really committed. “