Tomas Soucek held up nine fingers and then Jarrod Bowen held up his shirt.
Two tributes to team-mate Michail Antonio, lucky to be alive in hospital after his horrific car accident at the weekend, after two great goals on an emotional night for West Ham.
How big could those moments be for West Ham’s season, how important will they be for Julen Lopetegui and how damning can they be for Gary O’Neil’s future?
It was Soucek first, breaking the deadlock before the hour mark, who raised his arms in the air after his header and raised nine fingers in honor of Antonio, West Ham’s number 9.
And when Bowen won with 18 minutes left, he raised Antonio’s jersey to the crowd and the fans chanted his name.
For all the ramifications this result may still have, whatever impact it is expected to have in the dugouts, this was a night in which the will-he-or-won’t-he-or-won’t-they of the managerial merry-go-round was thrown into stark perspective.
West Ham claimed a 2-1 victory over Wolves in their Premier League clash on Monday night.
Jarrod Bowen celebrated the winner by holding the shirt of his teammate Michail Antonio.
The England international provided an impressive finish to secure victory for the hosts.
Much of the preparation had focused on these two coaches under pressure and who would fall the ax first after this latest edition of ‘El Sackico’. Julen Lopetegui? Gary O’Neil? Both?
Lopetegui was given a surprise break after two days of talks over his future by the West Ham board, while Gary O’Neil’s position at Wolves hung in the balance. For both, even talk that they would have an extra game to save their jobs felt much more like two clubs kicking the old can down the stretch until they had lined up a suitable alternative.
And then, at lunchtime on Saturday, the lights and noise of the circus that surrounds football these days were silenced when horrifying news and images arrived that Michail Antonio had crashed his Ferrari.
Antonio suffered serious injuries and has undergone surgery for a broken leg. It is expected to be weeks until he can leave the hospital and God knows how long until he kicks a soccer ball again, if ever.
But the main thing is that he is still here, as his captain Jarrod Bowen said before kick-off, to tell the story.
And so, his teammates came out for warm-ups wearing West Ham shirts with ‘Antonio 9’ on the back. They came out with zippered blouses in his honor.
The stadium announcer roared his name over and over again as the players huddled together to say his final words, and when the London Stadium followed suit, you can only imagine what inspirational final words about his team-mate Bowen must have used in the half. .
After nine minutes, the home fans gave a minute-long applause for his number 9 as more ‘Antonio’ chants echoed through the London Stadium.
West Ham stars came out in jackets reading ‘Antonio’ after striker’s car crash
Soucek held up the number nine in honor of Hammers forward Antonio, who wears that number.
None of that, however, seemed to encourage those players in the early stages. This was not a West Ham team coming out of the traps with fire in their bellies. They were as flat and dull as they have been here so many times lately. In reality, nothing seemed to have changed.
Carlos Soler slipped while trying to intercept a pass and needed Konstantinos Mavropanos to rescue him. Lukasz Fabianski saved a couple of snaps from Joao Gomes and Matheus Cunha.
Lopetegui’s team, at least, grew in the contest. Bowen forced a smart save from Sam Johnstone after a one-two with Tomas Soucek. A beautiful pass over the top from Crysencio Summerville found Soler, but his attempt was thwarted by an excellent block from Rayan Ait-Nouri.
Mohammed Kudus’ shot forced Johnstone to save the ball in danger, but Soucek was a fraction of a second too late. Mavropanos scored one from eight yards after Max Kilman fell from a corner. Summerville headed wide at the far post.
So at the end of the first half, when a handful of boos greeted the referee’s whistle, there was an all-too-familiar echo of West Ham’s loss to Leicester, where they took 20 shots before half-time and showed no goals. This time only all 12 but, again, to no avail.
What Lopetegui wouldn’t give for a clinical striker.
Thank goodness, then, he has a major midfield threat in Soucek. Just 10 minutes into the second half, a Bowen corner found the Czech international unmarked beyond the far post and his header sailed over everyone and curled into the far corner.
Above were the arms, above were the nine fingers and above were the tribute to Antonio in his hospital bed and above, perhaps, O’Neil’s position went up in smoke.
Matt Doherty got Wolves back into the game with a good strike after the break.
In the end, it was not enough to save the visitors, who suffered their tenth defeat in the league.
When Kudus scored a cross from Bowen a few minutes later, he ran too soon and, after too long a VAR check, the goal was disallowed.
Wolves and O’Neil were convinced, or at least desperate, for a penalty when Guedes fell to a challenge from Emerson only for the referee and VAR to reject the protests. They later had another soft appeal for a Bellegarde entry rejected.
Not that they had to wait too long for clemency. Ait-Nouri’s cross into the box allowed Matt Doherty to put Summerville ahead to equalize.
When so much is at stake, each goal seemed to carry the weight of the world.
Imagine the relief, then, when Bowen pushed his way through the crowd of Wolves bodies and launched the winner into the bottom corner, ran towards the fans and raised Antonio’s shirt high.
On nights like this it’s always tempting to say that football doesn’t matter. But of course it does matter. It is important for those seeking solace and community and escape on these cold Monday nights.
It was big enough that the players got into a fight after the final whistle and had to be separated. A manager is likely to lose their job over it and that matters too. It’s just that, after everything that happened, this was a night that reminded us all that sometimes other things matter more.