Nigeria international Taiwo Awoniyi was the hero yesterday as Nottingham Forest celebrated their first home game in the Premier League for 23 years by beating West Ham 1-0.
The two-time European champions have made 14 new signings in a bid to maintain their top-flight status and two of those making their home debuts were the heroes as Awoniyi scored the only goal and Dean Henderson saved Declan Rice’s penalty.
“I’m really happy about it because it took me a long journey to get back to the Premier League and I’m very, very proud of myself,” Awoniyi, who was at Liverpool from 2015-21 but did not make a competitive appearance and was loaned out several times, reportedly said. “It was a dream for me to score and for the team to win… I believe we will have a great season.”
Incidentally, Awoniyi’s first goal in The Reds’ colours coincided with his 25th birthday anniversary and he had hinted in an interview with NationSports penultimate weekend that a goal on his home debut would be relished.
Nottingham Forest recorded a 2-0 away loss to Newcastle in their opener against Newcastle on August 6 but they bounced with yesterday’s home win at The City Ground against West Ham.
“For a start (of my career with Nottingham Forest) , victories in both games will be a perfect birthday gift for me and of course, I would be so delighted to score goals because that’s the job of every striker,” Awoniyi who clocked 25th on August 12 told NationSport.
In a related development , Forest boss Cooper felt his side deserved the points as he was left delighted for supporters in the stadium as per nottinghampost.com.
“We were never going to say it’s just the first home, it was more than that. You could see since we got promoted everyone was waiting for this game. We knew it was very important,” he said.
“I spoke to the players and said that we had probably three generations of supporters here today. We had people here who remember the real glory days, a new generation whose first Premier League game this was and the ones in between.
“We had to represent all those groups. What I would like to do is dedicate the game to all the supporters who couldn’t get a ticket today. We could have quadrupled the amount of people in the stadium today and those here got us through today.
“First half we were much the better team. We took the game to West Ham. There was the occasion and the match. We had to deal with both. I was so happy with our attitude and confidence.
“The atmosphere was amazing and we played really well first half. Maybe we should have created more with the positions we got in and set pieces. They had moments on breakaways and turnovers. We could have been more streetwise with one or two things and we’ll have to learn.”