Awoniyi On Target As Forest Beat West Ham 1-0
Nottingham Forest secured a famous win as Taiwo Awoniyi scored the only goal to beat West Ham as Premier League football returned to the City Ground after a 23-year absence.
Awoniyi, Forest’s record signing this summer, applied the first-time finish after Jesse Lingard’s effort had been deflected into his path off Hammers defender Ben Johnson.
Goalkeeper Dean Henderson was Forest’s other hero, denying Declan Rice with a second-half penalty save.
The Hammers could also reflect on two strikes from distance that hit the crossbar and another excellent Henderson save from Tomas Soucek as they started the season with successive defeats.
However, for Forest and their boss Steve Cooper, it was another unforgettable day for a club who were bottom of the Championship less than 12 months ago.
Spurred on by a frenzied home crowd, Forest started on the front foot and had enough to keep West Ham at bay even after their energetic early efforts started to slow.
If there was an element of Forest not quite being ready for their top-flight return, given negotiations around a new kit sponsor are still to reach a conclusion and the most recent of their 14 summer signings – £20m forward Emmanuel Dennis and free-transfer arrival Cheikhou Kouyate – were not available, the same was not true of their fans.
For hours before kick-off, they thronged the streets around the City Ground and the noise they made when the home players emerged for their warm-up was only a foretaste of the spine-tingling reception when they emerged from the tunnel for real.
Forest responded by tearing into their opponents at a furious pace. Moussa Niakhate and Awoniyi both threatened with headers, while Neco Williams drew a decent save from Lukasz Fabianski, who also had to palm away a goal-bound header from team-mate Soucek.
The backing kept Forest going on a blisteringly hot day – and the reward came in first-half stoppage time.
Awoniyi spent six years as a Liverpool player without making a single first-team appearance, before moving to Union Berlin in 2021 and then, a year later, to Forest.
As with a number of the club’s summer recruits, Awoniyi has a point to prove. His finish was reactive, but he needed to be in the right place at the right time – and his name will now go into Forest folklore along with all the other great names associated with the two-time European Cup winners.
Henderson is another who wants to show how good he is. The on-loan Manchester United man produced a superb save at the start of the second half when Soucek was first to the loose ball after Pablo Fornals’ strike bounced off the bar.
