Chicharito double downs Terriers

West Ham United 4

Huddersfield Town 3 at The London Stadium

Javier Hernandez scored two goals in eight minutes as West Ham came from 3-1 down to win 4-3 at London Stadium against doomed Huddersfield Town this afternoon.

In a game littered with comical defending, the Hammers kept alive their hopes of finishing in the top seven – and therefore a potential Europa League place.

Huddersfield will be gutted. They had only scored 15 goals all season before this game, but the three they managed here today were not enough to get anything – and it is now just a matter of when they will be relegated.

The Hammers took the lead on 15 minutes when Mark Noble converted from the spot after Aaron Rowe had brought down Manuel Lanzini.

But playing with more freedom than ever, possibly brought on by the fact that relegation was almost certainly assured even before kick-off, Huddersfield equalised within two minutes. Aaron Mooy’s cross from the left found Juninho Bacuna, who was completely unmarked in the centre of the box to head home.

West Ham then briefly looked the brighter of the two teams, Michail Antonio seeing an effort curl over.

But Huddersfield had other ideas, Alex Pritchard’s free-kick on the half-hour was rolled to Chris Lowe, who crossed for Karlan Grant to tap home, completely unmarked.

Boos rung out at London Stadium at half-time but worse was to come when, after 64 minutes Karlan Grant scored his second of the game, the former Charlton man robbing the ball from the West Ham defence, turning Angelo Ogbonna inside out and unleashing a wicked shot from 25 yards which beat Lucasz Fabianski.

The Huddersfield fans sang ‘we want four’ but the game was to take a major twist in the last 15 minutes.

The comedy marking and defending which had been going on all afternoon continued as the impressive Aaron Cresswell’s left-side corner was headed in by the unmarked Ogbonna in a carbon copy of Bacuna’s goal from the first half.

Then came the Javier Hernandez show. With seven minutes remaining Cresswell’s corner found its way to substitute Samir Nasri on the right, whose cross was met by Hernandez, himself a half-time substitute for Michail Antonio, for the equaliser.

Then, deep in to stoppage time, Felipe Anderson’s cross was met by Chicharito, whose header sent the London Stadium wild.

The win is the first time West Ham have secured three successive victories at London Stadium since their move here, and sets up a great end to the season. The Hammers will now be hoping one of the top four can win the FA Cup, which will mean seventh place in the Premier League will qualify for European football’s second competition.

Teams:

West Ham: Fabianski, Zabaleta, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice, Noble (c) (Nasri, 59), Antonio (Chicharito, 46), Lanzini, Felipe Anderson, Arnautovic (Lucas Perez, 68)

Subs: Adrian, Masuaku, Balbuena, Snodgrass, Nasri, Lucas Perez, Chicharito

Huddersfield: Lossl, Smith, Kongolo, Bacuna (Puncheon, 67), Mooy, Lowe, Grant (Mounie), Pritchard (Yellow, 73), Stankovic, Durm, Rowe (Billing, 55)

Subs: Hamer, Billing (Yellow, 77), Mounie, Zanka, Hadergjonaj, Daly, Puncheon

Referee: Jonathan Moss

Attendance: 59, 931