The Hammers Carabao Cup challenge came to a halt following defeat to Fulham at London Stadium on Tuesday night.
On an emotional, eventful and engaging evening that had been overshadowed by the sad news of the passing of fans’ favourite Ludek Miklosko, West Ham United had twice come from behind thanks to first-ever Hammers goals for Morato and Pablo.
But in the final reckoning, the Cottagers snatched a 3-2 victory through substitute Oscar Bobb’s 78th-minute decider.
“Ludo will always be in our memories,” insisted Nuno Espírito Santo following a third-round tie preceded by a minute’s heartfelt applause for the West Ham United goalkeeping legend, who lost his brave battle against stomach cancer on Monday. “The fans still sing his song. It means a lot for the Club.”
Czech Republic international Tomáš Souček also laid a No. 1 jersey behind a goal in tribute to his trailblazing compatriot, who had shown several of his countryman the road to England.
Right now – sitting at the top of the EFL Championship – West Ham are also leading the way and, following the six-goal walloping of Wrexham four days earlier, Nuno made half-a-dozen changes.
In the opposite dug-out, former Hammer Alvaro Arbeloa retained only two players from the side that won Fulham’s first Premier League point of the season in Saturday’s goalless draw at Liverpool,
Despite that reshuffle, the visitors took the lead on 13 minutes, when César Palacios invited Rodrigo Muniz to head home his byline cutback following a left-wing raid.
Just three minutes later, though, Konstantinos Mavropanos nodded Arne Engels deep cross back into the six-yard box, where Morato headed the Hammers level.
Eight minutes before the break, Palacios raced behind a sieve-like home defence before comfortably slotting beyond the helplessly-exposed Finlay Herrick.
“It was a tough test for us against tough opponents,” observed Nuno. “Overall, we put in a reasonable performance but made some defensive mistakes and got punished.”
In first-half stoppage-time, an eternal East End wait ended, when Pablo – having endured 21 barren games without a goal since January’s £21million transfer from Gil Vicente - broke his duck at long last.
Kyle Walker-Peters drilled in a low, right-wing cross and with ‘keeper Benjamin Lecomte only able to parry Mohamadou Kanté’s clever flick, the relieved Portuguese striker ended his drought with a tightly-angled shot that sparked joyous scenes of celebration amongst team-mates, coaches and fans alike.
“We’re all aware of what Pablo gives the team both with and without the ball,” insisted Nuno. “He was just missing the goal that he’s been chasing and we’re happy that he’s got it tonight. It’ll improve Pablo’s confidence and, hopefully, he’ll now kick-on.”
With both sides making a spate of second-half substitutions, the recently-arrived Bobb finally settled matters after embarking on a mazy run into the Hammers area with just a dozen minutes left.
“We were in the game until the end,” concluded Nuno, whose team now face a tense, tricky London derby at Millwall on Saturday (kick-off 12:30). “We’d wanted to see how far we could get in the Carabao Cup but there’s not much time for any sorrow because we’ve now got a massive game against a big rival. We’ve got to re-group, recover and fight for another three points. We’ve been trying to manage the squad and hope to have fresh legs by Saturday so that we can compete well."
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