West Ham captain came to the Hammer’s rescue yesterday with a decisive goal that has got the irons out of the Premiership starting blocks with a win over Aston Villa.

Kevin Nolan came to West Ham’s rescue yesterday against Aston Villa and got us off to a great start. it happened just after 40 minutes when the West Ham captain found Ricardo Vaz Té’s cross and all Nolan had to do was guide the ball into an open net. Nolan’s goal get’s the Hammers off to a flyer – that all important first game of the season, too!

Big Sam Allardyce had this to say of his captain after the game:

“Kevin’s a goalscorer. A lot of people look at him as a midfielder.
“But he is a David Platt. He gets on the end of things, ghosts into the box without people understanding how he got there. It was through instinct he found that chance. While all the other players are standing watching, Kevin is on the move and he pops it into the back of the net.
“Kevin is as good as any striker in the box. He’s a great finisher and that’s his outstanding quality, proven over many years.”

Nolan’s goal caused a bit of a stir, too. The linesman raised his flag as he thought Vaz T´was in an offside position from Mark Noble’s free kick up the right side of the box. Vaz Té kept a cool head as Ref mike Dean over ruled the linesman and found Nolan running toowrds the net to slot home the only goal of the match.

The controversy was later extinguished as video footage found the ref to be totally correct in his decision. Before Nolan’s goal the Hammers were pretty poor and many a fan could be heard complaining about Allardyce’s long ball game. it’s early days yet lads, let’s see what Sam has got in store for the season!

West Ham had more chances than Villa and although the Brummie outfit had the greater possession they never looked like bothering West Ham too much.

So that’s round one over and West Ham have a win in the bag