Jamie Paterson netted a hat-trick as Nottingham Forest romped past a depleted West Ham United side in the third round of the FA Cup this afternoon.
Djamel Abdoun's cheeky penalty gave the Championship outfit a 1-0 half-time lead before Paterson's hat-trick and an Andy Reid strike saw Forest coast into the fourth round, where they will play Ipswich Town or Preston North End.
Below, Sports Mole wonders why West Ham were so bad at the City Ground.
Match statistics:
Forest:
Shots 22
On target 11
Possession 61%
Corners 1
Fouls 7
West Ham:
Shots 12
On target 5
Possession 39%
Corners 10
Fouls 4
Was the result fair?
Without a doubt. Forest could have had even more. Sam Allardyce's team was full of youngsters who could have played out of their skins and impressed him, but instead they folded limply.
Forest's performance
Forest are on a nice unbeaten run at the moment and they certainly made it look easy against Premier League opposition. However, it wasn't a Premier League-quality XI they were up against today. Still, they played well and took advantage of some terrible defending by the visitors. Paterson hadn't scored a goal for the club before but broke his duck in style. Reid has probably been their best player this season and was classy all day in midfield. After the full-time whistle, Forest quickly announced that he had been given a new two-and-a-half-year contract. Good move by the club.
West Ham's performance
Allardyce admitted before the game that this competition was his third priority behind the Premier League and Capital One Cup and his side certainly played like they didn't care. The defending itself was particularly shabby and the senior players who did start barely showed up either. Almost 3,000 West Ham fans made the trip north to watch and they will have felt so let down.
Sports Mole's man of the match
Jamie Paterson: It had to be the Forest forward, who took two of his goals very well while the other was fortunate because of a deflection.
Biggest gaffe
We're going to pick on West Ham striker Modibo Maiga for dilly-dallying on the ball when he should have shot and perhaps equalised in the first half.
Referee performance
Martin Atkinson had a solid game, correctly awarding Forest their penalty for an obvious trip.
What next?
Forest: It's back to the Championship next for promotion-chasing Forest as they travel to Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.
West Ham: The games come thick and fast for West Ham as first they travel to Manchester City for the first leg of the League Cup semi-final on Wednesday before a trip to Cardiff City in the league on Saturday.
Pascal Lemesre
