West Ham took a giant stride towards Europa League football on Wednesday night with a 3-1 away victory over West Brom.
The Hammers were forced to do things the hard way after falling behind directly from a Matheus Pereira corner – albeit perhaps with a slight touch on the way from Tomas Soucek.
With points hard to come by in recent week, David Moyes might’ve feared European qualification was slipping away.
But, Soucek levelled the match on the stroke of halftime before Angelo Ogbonna and Michail Antonio wrapped matters up late on.
Things could’ve been far simpler for the Irons however when Declan Rice fired a penalty against the foot of the post after just three minutes.
Not perturbed by his own error, Rice took to Twitter after the win to call for ‘one last push’ from his teammates.
Twitter: Bet that was stressful to watch hammers fans
MASSIVE win! Now we have one last push Sunday!! Let’s go
https://t.co/DDH3afLXCB (@_DeclanRice)
The 22-year-old has recently returned from a knee injury and can perhaps be forgiven for fluffing his lines from the spot.
After all, this season has been another remarkable campaign for the central midfielder – making 34 appearances across all competitions and earning an average Sofascore rating of 7.07 from 31 Premier League outings.
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Most Hammers will simply be relieved to see Rice back and three points in the bag.
Following a superb 2020/21 campaign, Moyes’ men will be desperate to qualify for the Europa League as a reward.
At least a point from the final day clash with Southampton on Sunday at The London Stadium will see the Hammers finish inside the top six.
