It was difficult to understand why the referee kept adding minutes to injury time while Nottingham Forest were tearing West Ham to shreds in the biggest upset of the FA Cup third round mostly because of the 5-0 win, and not the disparity between the leagues, as Djamel Abdoun and Jamie Paterson put on quite a performance.
Things went badly for the Hammers, not playing with a full lineup, from the early goings, as Jamie Paterson was fouled by George Moncur in the box, giving Forest a penalty kick that the wonderful Algerian player, Abdoun, converted.
From there it was the Forest show. West Ham barely got themselves chances in the very technically limited squad Sam Allaradyce has at his disposal. Greg Halford isn’t the most gifted of strikers, but he did an incredible job in creating space and paving way for Abdoun and Paterson in the middle. The 22-year old winger found it quite easy time and time again to find space and time inside the West Ham box, finishing with a hat trick.
More goals
The final chord came from the veteran Irishman Andy Reid, scoring what was the best goal of the match with a wonderful finish to the top corner after getting a pass from Abdoun, wrecking havoc on the left wing.
While Forest are having a good season, they haven’t proven to be above the rest of the competition in the Championship. West Ham are struggling, and it feels as if Allardyce expected to get knocked out of the cup this early (maybe even wanted to), but no one saw such a humiliation coming, which means that it’s not going to be only about repairing the team’s on-pitch problems, but trying to pick certain players up from being involved in a five-goal loss to a Championship team.
For Forest, they need to start playing with the same kind of energy and creativity in their league matches, winning only 10 times out of the 24 they’ve played so far, drawing 10 times as well and struggling to put away easy matches at home.