Awoniyi strike not enough as West Ham consume Forest in Premier League clash

Tomas Soucek struck a late winner as West Ham fought back from 2-1 down to beat Nottingham Forest 3-2 in a thriller at the London Stadium.

Lucas Paqueta put the Hammers – who had won just one of their previous seven Premier League outings – in front inside three minutes after a glaring error from Nicolas Dominguez, but the teams went in level at the break after Taiwo Awoniyi tapped in when Morgan Gibbs-White’s shot was saved.

Anthony Elanga’s goal turned the game in Forest’s favour for the first time after just over an hour, but West Ham hit back when Jarrod Bowen headed home a pinpoint corner from James Ward-Prowse to set up a tense finale.

It was Soucek who had the final say. After stretching to divert a cross onto the bar, the Czech midfielder won the game when he leapt to meet another Ward-Prowse corner and planted a header beyond Odysseas Vlachodimos.

Before the game had even got anywhere near settling into a rhythm, Forest put themselves on the backfoot. Dominguez inexplicably put his pass into the back of team-mate Ibrahim Sangare, with the ball ricocheting into the path of Paqueta, who stayed alert and arrowed into the bottom-right corner.

SkySport