Fornals’ early goal puts the Hammers in the driving seat
WEST HAM: Fabianski 6 (Trott 83, 6); Fredericks 7 (Baptiste 83, 6), Balbuena 7, Diop 7 Johnson 7; Noble 7, Soucek 7 (Afolayan 70, 7); Fornals 8, Lanzini 7, Benrahma 7; Yarmolenko 7. Unused subs – Cresswell, Coufal, Ogbonna, Antonio, Rice, Dawson..
DONCASTER: Balcombe 5; Wright 5 (Amos 79, 5), Anderson 5, Butler 6, John 6; Halliday 6, James 7; Okenabirhie 7, Taylor 7 (Williams 70, 5), Smith 6 (Richards 64, 5); Lokilo 5 (Simoes 64, 5). Unused subs – Jones, Amos, Blythe, Ravenhill.
WEST HAM UNITED 4 Fornals (2), Yarmolenko (32), Butler (og, 54), Afolayan (78) DONCASTER ROVERS 0
West Ham assistant manager Alan Irvine is confident Said Benrahma will soon end his goal drought after he produced another blank despite an excellent performance in their win over Doncaster.
The Hammers eased into the fifth round with Pablo Fornals and Andriy Yarmolenko on target in the first half, before Rovers defender Andy Butler put through his own net and debutant Oladapo Afolayan grabbed a fourth late on.
It was almost the perfect afternoon for the Premier League outfit, but Benrahma was unable to get off the mark for the club in his 13th appearance since an October switch from Brentford.
Algeria international Benrahma was a constant thorn in the visitors’ defence and assisted the second goal at the London Stadium and yet remains without a goal in almost four months. Irvine said: “Along with everybody else, Said played very well and it would have been nice to top it up with a goal.
“He was keen with a couple of free-kicks, but it was a good performance for him and the sooner he can get that goal the better.
“People know we brought Said here to create and score goals, that is the type of player he is.
“He is desperate to get that first goal and once he does it will settle him down as well.”
With the Premier League side in control midway through the second half, David Moyes was able to hand out three debuts and Afolayan got off the mark on his first outing for the club.
The ex-solihull Moors forward tapped in from close range after Ryan Fredericks had been denied.
“Fantastic to be through, fantastic to get the clean sheet and to score four goals,” Irvine added. “It was great to give the three lads their debuts and great to see one of them score.”
Good work by Yarmolenko contributed towards a secondminute opener.
The makeshift forward produced a fine through ball to Fredericks and the defender had time to pick out the onrushing Fornals, who fired into the bottom corner.
After a Benrahma effort had been saved, he created the second. Rovers gave away possession to the Algerian and he spotted the run of Yarmolenko into the area and the No. 7 found the net with a neat chip over Ellery Balcombe.
After the break, Balcombe stopped two separate efforts by Tomas Soucek, before the third did eventually arrive.
Captain Mark Noble drilled a corner into the front post where it got a touch and that was enough to put off defender Butler, who saw the ball bounce off his knee and find the net.
Moore’s men almost pulled a goal back when Jon Taylor’s cross came for Matt Smith at the back post, but his half-volley clipped the bar and went over.
Normal service was quickly resumed and Afolayan grabbed the fourth with 12 minutes left.
Doncaster boss Darren Moore was proud of his players though and urged them to learn from the defeat and use those lessons in pursuit of promotion.
“Ultimately we got punished by the real quality of the opposition we were up against,” he admitted.
“We are on a journey, we have made huge strides and today would have been a massive lesson for us in continuing to get better.”