The Hammers captain’s tame goal was easily repelled by England colleague Dean Henderson after Scott McKenna blocked Tomas Soucek’s goal with his arm in a quick and furious affair at a raucous City Ground on Sunday.
Said Benrahma had disallowed a goal for a Mikhail Antonio barge at the unsuspecting Orel Mangala in the first half, while the Algerian international and Pablo Fornals also both hit the woodwork in a day of huge frustration for David Moyes’ side – defeated by reigning champions Manchester City on opening weekend – in the blazing East Midlands sun.
Instead, newly promoted Forest was left behind to celebrate their first top-level win since May 1999, thanks to full-time debutant Taiwo Awoniyi, one of Steve Cooper’s 14 summer signings (so far) to come home just before halftime. after a scraped Jesse Lingard’s shot was accidentally put in his path by Ben Johnson.
Lingard was the subject of much anger from the traveling fans, some of whom threw counterfeit notes on the field to express their anger at the England midfielder who turned down a summer return to West Ham in favor of a reportedly more lucrative one-year contract with Forest.
West Ham spent much of the second period on the offensive looking for an elusive equalizer, with Kurt Zouma’s header from a corner brilliantly cleared by a determined Neco Williams.
New signings Gianluca Scamacca and Maxwel Cornet were both in vain as Moyes, frustrated by West Ham’s slow progress in the transfer market this summer when he named three goalkeepers in his match roster, was left to dwell on successive losses to the kick off their final European campaign against Danish outfit Viborg FF in the Europa Conference League play-offs on Thursday evening.