Angelo Ogbonna was delighted with the response West Ham United showed to climb out of the Premier League’s bottom three with a thumping 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
Ever the perfectionist, Ogbonna was typically hard on himself after Tottenham Hotspur scored twice in the second half to send the Hammers to defeat the week before, but there was no hangover from that display at London Stadium.
Ogbonna and his fellow defenders kept goalkeepers Łukasz Fabiański and Alphonse Areola well protected throughout, while the goals flowed at the other end in the final 20 minutes as Danny Ings netted twice before Declan Rice and Michail Antonio sealed victory.
It means the east Londoners head to Manchester United for Wednesday’s Emirates FA Cup fifth round tie with their confidence buoyed and Ogbonna is determined to use the win over Forest as a building block for more success.
“We wanted to show our fans we were better than we showed at Tottenham,” Ogbonna explained.
“We were so disappointed last week, and especially me as I felt I let the team down with some mistakes.
“So it was good to bounce back and now we have the opportunity to step up. We have a lot of quality and on Saturday we showed that quality.”
Ogbonna also had praise for the Claret and Blue Army for the part they played in driving the team onto victory at the weekend.
The Hammers had to be patient, with Forest keeping the scoresheet blank for 70 minutes, but their persistence was rewarded handsomely in the end.
“The fans have been brilliant,” he added, “At 0-0 they tried to encourage us, and they have always been behind us.
“You can feel it on the pitch, as soon as we do something good the fans are straight away behind us. Before the first goal, the fans were pushing us to do something more and achieve what we wanted to achieve.”
