West Ham bottle lead against Nottingham Forest as Championship return is nearing

By Capital Football Reporter at London Stadium

West Ham 1-2 Nottingham Forest

Goals: OG Murillo 13' (WH), Dominguez 55' & Gibbs-White penalty 89' (NF)

A win would hardly have shifted the dial on West Ham's survival chances in most people's eyes.

But the bitter 2-1 defeat in the relegation six-pointer with closest rivals Nottingham Forest has now cut the Hammers seven points adrift.

In footballing terms tonight's defeat is an unspeakable tragedy of perhaps unquantifiable sporting (and financial) consequences that could see the third-from-bottom east Londoners return to the Championship for the first time since 2012.

And that only three years on from winning the Conference League in Prague. Talk about a fall from grace.

Nuno Espirito Santos' men are now winless in ten Premier League outings with their last three-pointer coming against fellow free-falling Burnley in early November.

West Ham banked on new arrival from Lazio Taty Castellanos to spearhead a potential revival.

Yet a false first-half dawn was the order of the day yet again as the Argentine striker and his new attacking teammates provided the threat of a plastic fork.

Minutes after Alphonse Areola brilliantly palmed Neco Williams' curler away, the battling Hammers took the lead.

Soucek's flicked header at the near-post took a decisive touch off Murillo from a corner on 13 minutes.

The fans celebrated in composed fashion without getting too much ahead of themselves. Because they knew that their defence is easier to surpass than Channel immigration security these days.

Two minutes before the break, ex-Chelsea boy wonder Callum Hudson-Odoi smacked the upper side of the crossbar with a thumping strike.

The Hammers breathed a sigh of relief, believing that nothing could go wrong and that it was going to be their day. Not least when Summerville appeared to have doubled the lead six minutes before the restart.

Yet the loud roar this time turned into dismay with the goal being disallowed due to Castellanos finding himself in an offside position in the build-up.

Things went from bad to worse and West Ham backed up the famous saying that you're at your weakest just after you scored. Just that their goal didn't even count before things went downhill for good.

Hence from a potential 2-0 lead all of a sudden it was 1-1 in a split-second with Nicolas Dominguez doing the damage with a looping header.

The drama unfolded late on when Areola punched Morgan Gibbs-White instead of clearing a high cross.

And MGW coolly turned one point into three and a four-point cushion into seven when he converted the winning penalty in the 89th minute.

From elated to crestfallen: that was West Ham all over.

It's not too late for a miracle but they need points.

And fast.

And the least said about their rotten luck the better.

Because everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong.