Morgan Gibbs-White dedicates goal to Taiwo Awoniyi as Forest win at West Ham
West Ham 1-2 Nottingham Forest: Nuno Espirito Santo’s team kept their Champions League hopes alive with the victory.
Morgan Gibbs-White dedicated his goal against West Ham to stricken team-mate Taiwo Awoniyi as Nottingham Forest kept their Champions League hopes alive with a 2-1 win.
The Reds captain held Awoniyi’s shirt up to the crowd after scoring the opening goal in the first half.
Striker Awoniyi is recovering from emergency abdominal surgery, having been placed in an induced coma, after colliding with a goalpost in last weekend’s Premier League home draw against Leicester.
Forest’s players had warmed up wearing shirts with Awoniyi’s name and number nine on the back, with a message on the front reading “we’re all with you Taiwo”.
Nikola Milenkovic added a controversial second, and although Jarrod Bowen pulled a spectacular volley back, Forest – already assured of some form of European football next season – set up a potential last-day shootout with Chelsea for the fifth and final Champions League place.
West Ham, with no such lofty ambitions after a miserable season, almost took the lead in the second minute when Vladimir Coufal – who along with Aaron Cresswell was playing his final home match for the club – crossed for Tomas Soucek, whose header was tipped over by Matz Sels.
Coufal, who has never scored for West Ham in 179 appearances, almost broke his duck with a deflected shot which was beaten out by Sels.
At the other end Alphonse Areola made a point-blank save from Gibbs-White and beat Chris Wood’s shot away.
But Areola’s dreadful blunder gifted Forest the opening goal, which came from a West Ham free-kick.
Max Kilman played the ball back to the French goalkeeper, who inadvertently passed it straight to Gibbs-White for a simple finish into an empty net.
There was a worrying moment for West Ham when Bowen challenged for the ball on the goal line and hit his head against the post.
The Hammers skipper had a cut above his eye patched up and was checked for concussion before being cleared to continue.
After the break Coufal, still looking for that elusive first goal, popped up on the edge of the area to volley just over.
But Forest doubled their lead when Anthony Elanga’s free-kick was touched in by Milenkovic, the goal given after a six-minute VAR check for offside.
At one point referee Sam Barrott went to the touchline to talk to both managers, while the PGMOL later explained that the semi-automated offside technology was “not available” and that there were also issues with the VAR communications to the onfield officials.
Nevertheless, it was Elanga’s 11th league assist of the season, equalling Forest’s Premier League record set by Bryan Roy in 1994-95 – the last time they qualified for Europe.
Bowen grabbed a consolation when he brilliantly controlled Morato’s header and lashed it into the net three minutes from time.
But Forest held on through more than 16 minutes of stoppage time, with Sels making a crucial save from a Niclas Fullkrug header to keep his side firmly in the Champions League mix heading into next weekend’s finale.