West Ham 'take small step' with win after fans protest

Saturday started with thousands of West Ham fans protesting with a coffin and hearse - but ended with the Hammers boosting their chances of avoiding relegation.

The supporters, calling for chairman David Sullivan and vice-chair Karren Brady to resign, marched through Stratford before the game.

They are desperately unhappy with the running of the club.

Had they lost to relegation rivals Burnley things could have become very toxic. And they went 1-0 behind.

But a 3-2 win at London Stadium which followed a 3-1 victory over Newcastle, means they are now only in the relegation zone on goal difference.

Two wins in a row will be a huge boost for manager Nuno Espirito Santo, who had started slowly after replacing the sacked Graham Potter.

He seems to have settled on a starting XI and shape too after some unpopular tactical experiments in his early games.

"I'm very, very happy," Nuno told the BBC after the game. "I am happy for the boys and our fans. This was a massive game for us.

"The goal we conceded, the reaction was good. We have proved we want to change things, we want to be strong characters. The boys on the pitch are showing this slowly."

West Ham were good in places - and awful at times - in this game.

All three goals came from balls deflected into the path of the goalscorer.

Burnley went ahead through Zian Flemming's header and were in control of the game at one point.

West Ham's first shot on target came in the 44th minute, Callum Wilson's header following a blocked Crysencio Summerville shot.

They would probably have been booed off at the break by their own fans had Wilson not scored.

And there was no immediate response in the second half.

In fact all they had until the 74th minute were two blocked Lucas Paqueta shots in quick succession.

But then Burnley keeper Martin Dubravka parried the ball to substitute Tomas Soucek to make it 2-1 in the 77th minute, and then to Kyle Walker-Peters for 3-1 in the 87th minute.

Josh Cullen's consolation came too late for a comeback - and the Hammers celebrated their win.

The stats make for good reading for West Ham, too. This was the first time they have scored three goals in back-to-back Premier League games since March 2024, and their expected goals (xG) of 3.02 was their best total of 2025.

"I think it's a small step," said Nuno.

"It's another day where we have achieved something at London Stadium which means a lot. But we will not get carried away."

Speaking to Sky, he added: "It's about trying to improve as a team.

"As a team we are showing small steps - but steps in the right direction."

"We've let one slip here if we're being brutally honest," said Burnley manager Scott Parker.

"We turned the game into what West Ham wanted it to be - a basketball match.

"For 30 minutes we nullified them, but we just fell away."

The gap could have been six points with a win - but now it is down to goal difference.

Striker Wilson, who scored his second goal for the club after leaving Newcastle in the summer, said: "It was a big game, we knew the magnitude of it.

"We've started sticking together as a group more, and being a team. We've done that last week and shown that again this week."

Nuno has won two and drawn one of his six games in charge - with Potter having lost five of his six matches before being sacked.

Wilson added: "It's a start - we know it's a process. We've not had the best of starts to the season. It wasn't pretty today by any means, but a win is a win. This is something to go on from."

A far cry really from even two weeks ago when they were on four points from nine games, a position nobody has stayed up from in the past decade.

Now it is 10 points from 11 games - which is a much different vibe.

West Ham's supporters will be delighted with the three points, but it changes nothing in terms of the protests.

They want Sullivan and Brady, who have been in control since 2010, to leave.

West Ham won the Conference League in 2022-23, which was their first silverware in 43 years, but seem to have gone backwards since.

Nuno is their third manager, after Julen Lopetegui and Potter, since David Moyes left at the end of 2023-24.

Another gripe is the 62,500-seater London Stadium, which was an athletics ground built for the Olympics, having had to leave the much-loved Upton Park.

The fans are keeping it fresh - there have been several formats of protests this season.

There were organised demonstrations before the 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace on 20 September. That was Potter's final game.

On 20 October thousands of fans stayed away for the 2-0 defeat by Brentford, in Nuno's first match in charge.

And on 3 November, last weekend, fans staged a sit-in protest.

This time it was a funeral march through Stratford, ending at the stadium.

Organisers Hammers United said: "Massive thank you to all of those supporters, young and old who took part in the protest march, an overwhelming success.

"Thousands of you came out and you were clearly heard! COME ON YOU IRONS!"

There is no reason to think a narrow win over Burnley will stop these protests from continuing.