Soucek header seals win for West Ham against Forest

LONDON :West Ham United's Tomas Soucek powered home a late header to seal a topsy-turvy 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest and end their winless streak in the Premier League on Sunday.

Soucek got on the end of James Ward-Prowse's corner to seal the points for the Hammers who had gone four games without a victory in the league after a bright start to the campaign.

Forest only had themselves to blame with some slipshod defending, beginning in the third minute when a wayward pass by Nicolas Dominguez allowed Lucas Paqueta to fire home.

The visitors equalised just before the break when Taiwo Awoniyi tapped in a rebound and Forest went ahead when Anthony Elanga finished off a superb move in the 63rd minute.

But straight from the restart Jarrod Bowen was unopposed as he headed West Ham level from another Ward-Prowse delivery and West Ham finished strongly with Soucek securing the points.

Victory lifted West Ham to ninth in the table with 17 points from 12 games while Forest are 15th with 13 points.

While West Ham are on the cusp of reaching the knockout rounds of the Europa League, their domestic form has been worrying of late with three successive defeats.

And when Elanga's cool finish from Ola Aina's cut back from the right nestled in the net, another setback loomed.

But 43 seconds after the restart, Forest switched off from a corner and Bowen, hardly the tallest player in a crowded area, was allowed to head past visiting keeper Odysseas Vlachodimos who had every right to question his defenders.

Forest's sloppiness almost gifted a goal to Vladimir Coufal minutes later but his stretching effort hit the crossbar and bounced back into the arms of Vlachodimos.

Every time Ward-Prowse delivered the ball into the area Forest were panicky and