Match Report Souček and Bowen goals tame Wolves West Ham ...

Gary O’Neil reacted by making two changes and it was not long before one of his two substitutes, Gonçalo Guedes, went down under a challenge from Emerson, but referee John Brooks waved away Wolves’ penalty appeals, and VAR Madley did not call for a pitchside check.

Within a minute, though, Wolves were level when Aït-Nouri crossed from the left and Doherty slid in and fired low past Fabiański with his left foot.

Talking of left feet, within three minutes, Bowen had collected from Kudus on the corner of the penalty area, cut inside and curled past Johnstone into the bottom left-hand corner.

Having got in front for a second time, West Ham appeared to have learned their lesson and raised their intensity levels, but Wolves did not give up, as Guedes and Nélson Semedo forced Fabiański into smart saves, then substitute Tommy Doyle fired over, before another VAR review by Madley denied Wolves a penalty for Mavropanos’s challenge on Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, and the assistant’s flag chalked off another Kudus goal for offside at the other end.

Bellegarde wasted two late chances and West Ham were finally able to breathe a sigh of relief at Brooks’s final whistle. It was not the prettiest of wins, but one which takes Julen Lopetegui’s team onto 18 points, nine ahead of their opponents and Ipswich Town in the relegation zone.

West Ham United: Fabiański, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Emerson (Cresswell 88), Soler (Paquetá 64), Souček, Álvarez (Todibo 88), Kudus (Rodríguez 87), Summerville (Ings 73), Bowen ©Subs not used: Areola (GK), Coufal, Luis Guilherme, Füllkrug

Goals: Souček 54, Bowen 72

Booked: Emerson, Soler, Fabiański, Rodríguez, Bowen

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Johnstone, Doherty, Semedo, Toti, Bueno, Aït-Nouri, Lemina ©, André (Bellegarde 62), J.Gomes (Doyle 78), Cunha, Strand Larsen (Guedes 62)Subs not used: Bentley (GK), Dawson, R.Gomes, Hwang, Forbs, Lima

Goal: Doherty 69

Booked: Cunha, Doherty, Gomes, Lemina

Referee: John Brooks

Attendance: 62,435