Reggae Boy Michail Antonio popped up with a thumping header a minute after coming on as a late substitute as David Moyes’ West Ham United hauled themselves out of the English Premier League relegation zone with a crushing 4-0 win against Nottingham Forest.
Playing at the London Stadium on Saturday, Danny Ings’ first goals for West Ham proved the launching pad for their 4-0 win. A £15 million (US$17.9 million) signing from Aston Villa in January, Ings proved the difference with two identical goals in three second-half minutes.
Further goals from captain Declan Rice and 32-year-old Antonio – his first in the league since October – sent the home fans away happy and allowed David Moyes to celebrate becoming only the third manager to win 250 Premier League games.
Antonio’s fellow Reggae Boy Jonson Clarke-Harris, meanwhile, bagged a brace to take his goal tally for the season to 20 as Peterborough United thrashed former table-toppers Plymouth Argyle 5-2 in League One.
Clarke-Harris, 28, gave ninth-placed Peterborough the lead with a 16th-minute penalty after Kwame Poku was pushed by Saxon Earley, and doubled his tally 64 minutes from close range after Jack Taylor steered an Ephron Mason-Clark cutback across the face of goal.
In the same division, Jamaican Jordon Garrick salvaged a point for bottom club Forest Green Rovers in a 1-1 draw against Lincoln City.
Winger Garrick’s third goal for Forest Green arrived in the 58th minute to deny Lincoln.
The 24-year-old Garrick spent the first half of the season on loan at Lincoln from Swansea City but made a permanent switch in January to bottom club Rovers who are now winless in 13 league games.
Ben House had stunned Rovers by opening the scoring after just four minutes, but when Lincoln failed to clear a cross from left-back Jamie Robson, Garrick – who left Jamaica to move to England as a child – pounced to blast home the equalizer from 12 yards.
Another Jamaican, Ahkeem Rose, 24, joined in a goal spree, bagging the fourth goal in first-half injury time as Weymouth won 5-0 at Concord Rangers in the sixth-tier National League South.
In the same division, Montserrat international Adrian Clifton, a 34-year-old who is on loan from fifth-tier National League side Maidenhead United, set 10-man Hampton & Richmond on the path to a 2-0 win over Dulwich Hamlet with a 62nd-minute strike.
Antigua and Barbuda winger Ashley Nathaniel-George was Maidenhead’s hero, scoring in the ninth minute as his side won 1-0 at Halifax Town.
The 27-year-old, who made his debut for Antigua and Barbuda last year, found the net with a long-range effort as the 14th-placed Magpies were rewarded for a lively start.
In the Championship, Bermuda captain Nahki Wells scored his second consecutive penalty to take his tally for the campaign to 11, as Bristol City edged Hull City 1-0.
Wells’ penalty was enough to earn Bristol City full points and leapfrog their opponents in the table to move to 13th.
The Robins, who are now unbeaten in nine games, needed the spot-kick to break Hull down, with the 32-year-old Wells – a 62nd-minute substitute – converting after Anis Mehmeti’s cross was handled 20 minutes from time, handing the hosts their second penalty in two games after going 469 days without one.
In the National League, Tyrese Sinclair, a 22-year-old attacking midfielder whose father Frank played 28 times for Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz, scored twice – in the 10th and 34th minutes – as mid-table Altrincham defeated Solihull Moors 4-1.
The double took Sinclair’s tally to eight for the campaign – five of them since his loan move to Altrincham from League Two side Rochdale.
Jordan Bowery, 31, whose St Kitts and Nevis-born father Bert played professionally in England and the United States, scored in the 81st minute for Mansfield Town – his third goal of the campaign – but the Stags crashed to a 5-2 home defeat against League Two promotion rivals Salford City.
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