Hammers ending on a high as the fans' mood lifts

AT THE FAR end of the London Stadium the fans cheered, as the adorable young son of midfielder Lucas Paqueta sprinted clear and found the net, the fourth player in claret and blue to do so on the afternoon

All around the ground they sang, as, mischievously, Jarrod Bowen's face was beamed onto the big screen, the final bars of Freed From Desire' playing as the winger strolled the pitch with his heavily pregnant partner, Dani Dyer, the West Ham fans' rewriting of that song alluding a little too explicitly to the root of her joyful burden.

And, at the quiet centre of it all, was David Moyes, fists clenched in the air in salute, then opening to leave one finger held pointedly aloft, a reference, presumably, to the number of games between his side and Hammers immortality ahead of next month's Europa Conference League Final against Fiorentina in Prague.

A trip to Leicester next Sunday, when a turbulent Premier League season will finally come to an end and avoidance of injury will be the primary aim, still lies ahead, too.

But the idea that West Ham's home season might end on an afternoon like this - sun shining on a club united, three welcome but not pivotal points on the board, maligned be players and a manager pilloried to the brink of the sack parading together in front of an almost still full house - did not seem likely mere weeks ago.