Former Midfielder Kevin Nolan on West Ham’s 2-0 Triumph at St James’ Park

Kevin Nolan, a former midfielder for both Newcastle and West Ham, discussed West Ham’s 2-0 victory over Newcastle at St James’ Park on Monday during an appearance on BBC Radio 5 Live. Nolan stated that West Ham scored their goals at opportune moments. He observed that while Newcastle had been dominant, West Ham capitalized on “a fantastic corner from Emerson and Tomas Soucek pops up in the box with a fantastic header.” He noted that West Ham appeared to withstand Newcastle’s offensive pressure. Nolan commented that “Newcastle missed big opportunities and that’s what you need – when you’re down there, struggling a bit and you haven’t found your mojo, you need those moments of luck.” Nolan added that West Ham benefited from such luck, and he considered their second-half performance “excellent.” He concluded by describing the evening as “a great night for West Ham and a poor one for Newcastle.” Regarding the expectations of West Ham supporters, Nolan remarked: “They’re only three points off Newcastle after Monday night, it’s amazing the way the table is so packed. A couple of wins can get you right up there amongst it again.” He believes “West Ham fans are expecting and want to be in the top eight, that’s where they want to be all the time now. They want to be playing their football ‘the West Ham way’ and winning games.” Nolan observed that West Ham secured the victory on Monday “in a good way.” He noted that “Newcastle struggled to break them down in the second half, West Ham played the way they wanted to play and got a fantastic win.” Addressing Newcastle’s performance, Nolan commented: “West Ham dealt with Alexander Isak really well, he had opportunities and scored an early goal which was just offside. You never know, if that goes in, that gets the momentum going.” He suggested that “It’s something which is going to be looked at by Newcastle fans – are they that counter-attacking team that prefers to play teams who are going to be on top of them, or can they break teams down? Because they really struggled in the second half once West Ham went 2-0 up.” Nolan concluded that “they tried to force things, they struggled to break them down and West Ham did well to keep the clean sheet.”