FEELS SOU GOOD

Tomas a Forest feller in latest JWP assister act

- MIKE WALTERS

TOMAS SOUCEK has not always been flavour of the month in the pie-and-mash of East London.

heartlands But his fifth goal of the season earned West Ham their first win in five Premier League games.

While Nottingham Forest will curse conceding from two set-pieces that were buttock-clenchingly simple.

Hammers fans still haven't forgiven referee Keith Hackett for Tony Gale's red card in an FA Cup semi-final against Forest 32 years ago.

But if they never let anything get in the way of a festering grudge, at least they gained a measure of redress here, after a game played for 45 minutes at the speed of chess was settled by a familiar Czech mate.

Soucek's goalscoring sense and James Ward-Prowse's superb set-piece delivery that's 10 assists for him this season - got West Ham out of a tight corner.

At 2-1 down, the Hammers were there for the taking.

No wonder Forest manager Steve Cooper admitted his side had "thrown it away" by switching off from two more special deliveries from that man Ward-Prowse.