Jarrod Bowen shines to give West Ham crucial win over Southampton | Football

Anyone who thinks that protest will have an adverse effect on West Ham’s efforts to stay in the Premier League should probably pipe down now. Far from affecting performances on the pitch, the atmosphere generated by the biggest demonstration yet against David Gold, David Sullivan and Karren Brady seemed to bring the best out of David Moyes’s side, who rose to the challenge by climbing out of the bottom three with an emphatic victory over Southampton.

This was a rare good day for West Ham, up to 16th after their first league win since 1 January. They will surely not go down if they maintain this level, even though they have played one game more than 18th-placed Aston Villa.

There is quality in this team, weapons at Moyes’s disposal. West Ham have talent in attack and here, with the pressure on, they celebrated a triumph built on the power of Sébastien Haller and Michail Antonio up front, Jarrod Bowen’s first goal since his £22m move from Hull in January and two neat assists from Pablo Fornals. Southampton were well beaten.

West Ham had to lift the gloom, especially as the mood before kick-off was dominated by an estimated 3,000 supporters marching against Sullivan, Gold and Brady. It started in Plaistow, a short walk from where Upton Park once stood, and it was hard to find anyone with a good word to say about the people running this troubled club. There were GSB Out banners and GSB Out t-shirts, there were GSB Out stickers pushed on to lamp posts, and it was clear from the fiery speeches and the mutinous chants that supporters have completely lost faith with those at the top.

There was humour, too. A Southampton fan emerged from Pudding Mill Lane station, looked at the ground and asked if she was really supposed to be looking at a football ground. “No, it’s an athletics stadium,” a police officer replied, pretty much summing up a sorry situation.

It all passed off peacefully, though, and there was a good atmosphere inside the ground. West Ham were up for it after coming close to nicking a point at Liverpool last Monday and, for all the complaints about Moyes being too negative, there was an adventurous look to the Scot’s 4-4-2 system. Haller was back in the side and the £45m striker’s physical combination with Antonio was highly effective. Southampton’s centre-backs, Jan Bednarek and Jack Stephens, never looked capable of containing West Ham’s front two.

There were also plenty of bright touches from Bowen on his first start for his new side, including a cheeky nutmeg to embarrass Ryan Bertrand on the right, and he showed nerves of steel when his moment arrived in the 15th minute. The impressive Declan Rice won possession in midfield and when Fornals spotted Bowen making a diagonal run from right to left, the Spaniard’s clever pass allowed the winger to take a touch away from Bednarek and dink a lovely finish over Alex McCarthy with his left foot.

West Ham almost doubled their lead moments later, only for Haller to head straight at McCarthy, and Southampton stirred after a lethargic start. The visitors have impressed on the road this season and they equalised with a slick goal in the 31st minute. Mark Noble’s lack of pace was exposed as Southampton advanced through the middle and the speed of the counterattack caught West Ham cold. Stuart Armstrong picked out James Ward-Prowse’s overlapping run and the right-back’s cutback gave Michael Obafemi the chance to curl a fine shot beyond Lukasz Fabianski.

The confidence briefly seemed to seep out of West Ham, who have lost 22 points from winning positions this season. Yet there was something different about them here; more defiance, a greater sense of purpose. They should have regained the lead when Issa Diop produced an absurd miss, somehow ducking underneath Aaron Cresswell’s corner when it looked easier to score, and they did regain the lead when an error from McCarthy gifted Haller his seventh goal of the season. Antonio sliced a cross into the area from the left and the Southampton goalkeeper was far too tentative as he came to collect, allowing Haller to bump him with a legal challenge, nod the ball away and slide to turn it into the empty net.

There would be no VAR reprieve for McCarthy and West Ham’s direct approach worked again in the 54th minute, Haller flicking on a long ball and Fornals releasing Antonio, who charged through before finishing with aplomb.

At that stage the mind drifted back to West Ham bungling a 3-1 lead against Brighton in their previous home game. Southampton had just introduced Danny Ings and a goal was on the cards when a cross reached Bertrand at the far post, only for Jeremy Ngakia to save the day with a last-ditch challenge. The points belonged to West Ham. There was even a sense of calm at full-time.