This was the result David Moyes wanted for his last game at the London Stadium
What a contrast in halves! The first half saw West Ham limp along with a fair bit of the ball, a fair few chances, but poor defending and a lack of ability to take those chances meant that the doom-merchants were already sharpening their knives
Luton scored after seven minutes and it was far too easy, as it has been so often this season. Barkley found Adebayo. His shot was blocked, but the ball broke out left to Doughty. He crossed and Lokonga simply ran off his man, beat the static Zouma and planted a header into the bottom left-hand corner.
The game started to open up in the second half and West Ham drew level when Bowen broke free down the right and drilled in a low ball that Kaminski could only block with his feet at the near post, with the rebound falling nicely at the unmarked Ward-Prowse’s feet just inside the area – and the midfielder found the far corner with a low shot.
Since the equaliser, the Irons really upped their game and went close twice in a ten minute spell.
With Luton desperately trying to park the bus, we finally took the lead after a succession of corners which Luton failed to clear with the ball dropping invitingly at the unmarked Soucek’s feet on the edge of the area, with the midfielder finding the bottom righthand corner of the net with a sweetly struck volley.
Suddenly the volume went up and the stadium was bouncing again !
And then it should have been 3-1.
Bowen was the architect again, running at the Luton defence and drawing players towards him. He then prodded the ball left for Kudus, who was unmarked, 12 yards out. He controlled it, looked up and somehow hit the outside of the post when it looked a lot easier to score!
With quarter of an hour to go the tireless Antonio made way for George Earthy and within a minute the 19 year old in only his second appearance with his first touch of the ball made it 3-1!
Kudus tricked his man, dropped a shoulder, burst to the byline and cut the ball back with his right foot and Earthy converted.
More jubilation !
The sad thing is if we had played like this half more often in recent weeks, we’d have been bang in the mix for European qualification again
Nevertheless , a fitting send off for David Moyes, who leaves the London Stadium with his head held high.