West Ham 3-1 Newcastle: Despite their first victory at the London Stadium since February, some Irons fans remained at the venue to stage a protest against the club’s ownership
West Ham defeated travel-sick Newcastle 3-1 to win their first home game since February and the first under new manager Nuno Espirito Santo.
Lucas Paqueta’s goal, Sven Botman’s own goal and Tomas Soucek’s goal at the death saw the Hammers, who looked certain to be relegated after their first nine games, perhaps register the shock of the weekend in the Premier League.
The last time West Ham won at home was a long time ago, 248 days ago to be exact, but even Newcastle have tasted victory at the London Stadium more recently.
Unfortunately for the Magpies, they have only won once on the road since then, suffering disastrous defeats dating back to March.
Some rebellious West Ham fans planned a sit-in after the match in protest against the club’s owners, and for the first time the team gave them a reason to stay until the end.
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However, it started in familiar disastrous fashion for the Hammers, with Jarrod Bowen hitting the post and quickly falling behind 26 seconds later.
For reasons well known to him, £40m centre-half Max Kilman was caught deep in Newcastle’s half and well out of position as Bruno Guimarães staggered up the pitch before playing the ball to Jacob Murphy.
Despite no pressure from the West Ham defense, Murphy cut inside and smashed the ball home from 20 yards out.
Radio commentator Clinton Morrison called it “under-12 advocacy” and an insult to 11-year-olds around the world.
So far this season, early conceding at home has signaled West Ham’s capitulation, with Chelsea, Tottenham and Brentford all leaving Stratford with impressive wins.
However, Newcastle didn’t seem to get the memo and the visitors shut themselves into their shell instead of attacking.
West Ham were awarded a penalty by referee Robert Jones after Malick Thiau brought down Bowen, but a VAR check revealed the defender had touched the ball first.
West Ham didn’t even get the corner kick they should have, and that was the moment of luck when Jones gave Newcastle a dropped ball instead.
But the Hammers, tempted by Newcastle’s lack of ambition, continued to press and from the resulting corner Nick Pope had to hit Paqueta’s free-kick against the post, allowing Kilman’s header to roll over.
The equalizer came in the 35th minute, when Pope punched a clearance to the edge of the area.
The goalkeeper may have been expecting Paqueta to curl the ball towards the far post, but instead the Brazilian shot low inside the near post.
Then, in stoppage time in the first half, Newcastle displayed their own shoddy defending as Botman deflected Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s cross past the off-footed Pope and into his own net.
Frustrated, Magpies manager Eddie Howe made three changes at half-time, replacing the helpless Nick Waltemaid with Anthony Gordon and Emile Craft.
However, thanks to the efforts of Fabian Schaal, William Osula and Jacob Ramsey, there was little difference, and in stoppage time of the second half Bowen’s shot was saved by Pope and Soucek slipped in with the rebound, giving West Ham an unexpected victory.
Despite the long-awaited victory, thousands of angry fans remained long after the final whistle and could not stop shouting at owner David Sullivan to “sack the boards.”
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