As the shot from Taty Castellanos rolled past José Sá and crawled towards the Wolves goal, West Ham’s bid for survival picked up pace. They looked doomed three months ago, but not any more. Nuno Espírito Santo’s side somehow found the motivation to go again after dropping seven points off 17th place in early January and if this escape act does end successfully, they will certainly look back to the impact made by their winter reinforcements.
While Axel Disasi has brought order to a chaotic defence Castellanos and Pablo Felipe are starting to resemble a modern day John Hartson and Paul Kitson. An old-school kind of front two, they have altered the nature of West Ham’s attack with their running and link-up play. Pablo, only 22, is a workhorse and Castellanos, who looks quite the find from Lazio, got the two goals his running deserved in this crucial 4-0 win over Wolves.
With Konstantinos Mavropanos also adding an unlikely double against the division’s bottom side, West Ham rejoiced in climbing out of the bottom three and plunging Tottenham into 18th place before their trip to Sunderland. There will also be nerves at Leeds and Nottingham Forest.
The importance of this game was heightened by the difficulty of West Ham’s run before they host Leeds on the final day. Yet it was not as simple as saying victory was a must. After all an improving Wolves were already 2-0 up in this season’s head-to-head and, for all that the table suggested this was a home banker, in reality it was anything but.
