Nottingham Forest off the mark with victory over West Ham

Nottingham Forest won their first Premier League home game for 23 years with a 1-0 success over West Ham.

The City Ground had not hosted a top-flight match since 1999 and Taiwo Awoniyi ensured it was a winning homecoming for Forest with his first-half goal.

The striker, who until Saturday night was the club’s record signing this summer, bundled home from close range to become the first Forest player to score a Premier League goal since Chris Bart-Williams all those years ago.

It got them up and running after defeat at Newcastle on the opening weekend and, on this evidence, Steve Cooper’s men are going to be a welcome addition to the top flight.

However, they did have goalkeeper Dean Henderson to thank for keeping the three points as he saved Declan Rice’s second-half penalty.

He also made several other saves while Pablo Fornals and Said Benrahma both hit the underside of the crossbar for the luckless Hammers, with the latter also seeing an opening goal ruled out by VAR in the first half.

Boss David Moyes will be left scratching his head as to how his side were beaten, but with two defeats from two, the Hammers will need to kickstart their season soon.

Forest fans had waited 8,492 days to sing their famous anthem ‘Mull of Kintyre’ ahead of a Premier League match and they put in a performance worthy of the wait, producing a spine-tingling atmosphere.

And their side fed off that as they made an electric start in the opening 15 minutes, playing with high intensity and surging forward at speed.

West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski had to be alert to tip over Vladimir Coufal’s clearance that went wrong before Awoniyi flashed a header just wide from a fine Neco Williams cross.

The Hammers were in danger of being overran, but