Nottingham Forest 2 West Ham 1

A fabulous last-gasp strike by Marlon King two minutes into stoppage time earned Nottingham Forest their first win of the season in a thrilling 2-1 victory over West Ham United.

Trophies won by Forest legend Brian Clough were paraded on the pitch by former players before the game, but there will be few supporters at the City Ground convinced the present side is capable of winning any silverware in the foreseeable future.

Despite producing a below-par performance for 80 minutes, the home side showed the spirit Clough would have been proud of by overcoming a one-goal deficit to win with two spectacular strikes in the last ten minutes.

West Ham will be kicking them selves for what can only be described as 'snatching defeat from the jaws of victory'. They dominated proceedings for most of the game but failed to make the final ball count.

Nigel Reo Coker, after being booked on 17 minutes for a foul on Paul Evans, had West Ham's best chance of the first half, but saw his shot, with the outside of his right foot well saved by Forest goalkeeper Paul Gerrard. Andy Reid will feel he should have done better after Steven Bywater parried a cross out to him; his shot went over the bar.

In the second half, things were much the same, with West Ham dominating play but being unable to find the killer punch.

That was until Marlon Harewood fired the Hammers ahead against his old club 12 minutes into the second half after Matthew Etherington, on the left flank had taken advantage of a James Perch mistake, cutting inside and squaring the ball nicely to the unmarked Harewood, who was allowed to tap the ball into an empty net from seven yards.

The goal stunned a Forest side that seemed incapable of picking themselves. That was until Joe Kinnear made an inspired substitution bringing on Eugen Bopp. Bopp then set up Paul Evans, against the run of play, hit a screaming 25-yard strike past Steven Bywater into the bottom right hand corner of the net in the 83rd minute.

The game looked to be heading for a 1-1 draw when the fourth official raised his board to signal two minutes of injury time.

But with only 2 seconds of the extra 2 minutes left, Marlon King, who had came on for Andy Impey on 66 minutes, to the sounds of some boos from the home fans after his bust up with Joe Kinnear, then became Forest's hero of the day.

Andy Reid played a through ball to him, King managed to turn away from a defender before curling a stunning 20-yard shot past Stephen Bywater just inside the right hand post.

The victory will be a massive lift for Forest as they had failed to win any of their first nine games of the season. Expectations will be high that they can make it two wins out of two against Brighton on Wednesday.

West Ham however will be sorely disappointed on missing out on the 3 points that would have lifted them into joint 2nd place, behind current leaders Reading.