Dean Henderson saved a Declan Rice penalty late in the game to help Nottingham Forest produce one of the narrow football results of the weekend in the Premier League. Taiwo Awoniyi scored the only goal of the game in first-half stoppage time. The game marked the first Premier League game for the club in 23 years at the City Ground.
Player ratings
Nottingham Forest: Henderson (9), Worrall (7), Niakhate (8), McKenna (8), Williams (9), O’Brien (9), Mangala (8), Toffolo (8), Lingard (7), Johnson (7), Awoniyi (9).
Subs: Cook (6), Surridge (6), Cafu (n/a).
West Ham: Fabianski (7), Johnson (6), Cresswell (7), Zouma (7), Coufal (5), Rice (6), Soucek (6), Fornals (7), Antonio (6), Bowen (7), Benrahma (7).
Subs: Scamacca (6), Lanzini (6), Cornet (6).
Man of the match: Lewis O’Brien.
Managers Reaction
Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper: “There were two things today. There was the occasion and the game. The event of the first home game back in the Premier League is so important to so many people. You could sense probably since we were promoted that everyone was waiting for the first home game. We knew it was a very important day. There were three generations of supporters here today. One who could remember the really good old days. A new generation for whom this was the first Premier League game they have seen. And the ones in between.”
West Ham manager David Moyes: “We are really frustrated. We haven’t scored many in pre-season so that was a glimpse of that today. The first 20 minutes frustrated me, I thought we were really poor. But I thought we grew into the game. We didn’t deserve the result we got, that is for sure. The decisions today didn’t go our way. I can only tell you I think we played quite well at times. We opened the game up, although we didn’t start as well as expected. We can’t blame the officials all the time but we’re certainly coming away from here feeling like we should have had much more.”
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