WOLVERHAMPTON :West Ham United’s James Ward-Prowse scored directly from a corner kick to earn his side a 2-1 Premier League win at Wolverhampton Wanderers that had looked unlikely after a poor first half display on Saturday.
Dead-ball specialist Ward-Prowse curled in a superb delivery in the 84th minute that completely fooled Wolves keeper Jose Sa as West Ham won for the first time in five league games.
Wolves were left furious though after Max Kilman had a 99th-minute equaliser ruled out for offside after a VAR check.
The win kept West Ham in seventh position with 48 points, level with sixth-placed Manchester United, while Wolves missed the chance to boost their European hopes and stay 11th.
Wolves dominated the first half and led through Pablo Sarabia’s penalty awarded for a foul on Rayan Ait-Nouri by Emerson. But Wolves were sloppy after the break and West Ham equalised in the 72nd minute with a Lucas Paqueta spot kick.
For the opening 45 minutes West Ham looked like a team with one eye firmly fixed on next week’s Europa League quarter-final, first leg away to Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
But thanks to Ward-Prowse they will head to Germany full of confidence after coming from a goal down to win for the fourth time in the league this season.
“I haven’t scored a goal like that since I was a kid!” Ward-Prowse said. “It was part of the plan to shoot on target and hope someone could get a little touch, but I think the wind helped.”
Worryingly for the Hammers though, leading striker Jarrod Bowen went off injured early in the second half after suffering a painful blow to the ribs.
“He’ll be incredibly stiff and it could restrict his movement, so I’m going (to have to see), but as everybody knows we need those top players to be firing on Thursday night and Jarrod is one of them,” manager David Moyes said.
West Ham could have no complaints at trailing at halftime as they offered next to nothing as an attacking force.
Wolves took the lead when Emerson’s clumsy tackle took down a surging Rayan Ait-Nouri in the area and Sarabia beat Lukasz Fabianski from the spot via the post.
West Ham looked more lively in the second half but were gifted an equaliser when Wolves tried to pass out of their own area but only invited trouble and conceded a penalty for handball which Paqueta squeezed beyond Sa.
Ward-Prowse then showed why he is widely-considered to have the best set-piece delivery in England – flighting his corner over Sa and into the far corner.
The final whistle sparked angry scenes though as Wolves’ coaching staff confronted the officials over Kilman’s disallowed goal – ruled out because Tawanda Chirewa was standing in an offside position and deemed to be impeding Fabianski.
Wolves, with some justification, argued that Fabianski had no chance of saving Kilman’s header anyway.
“I can’t think of an explanation, it was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever witnessed,” Wolves boss Gary O’Neil said.
