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Football London
Football London
Sport
Jonty Colman

The West Ham promise Pablo Fornals kept during FCSB victory to help Hammers youngster

West Ham United midfielder Keenan Appiah-Forson made his second Hammers appearance on Thursday night as a substitute against FCSB.

The young midfielder came off the bench after Pablo Fornals scored his second goal of the night in the 3-0 win over the Romanian side, with Appiah-Forson playing for the final half an hour of the tie.

For the midfielder, it was a chance to get senior minutes having narrowly missed out on coming off the bench last month in the home win over Anderlecht. That night, a 2-1 win over the Belgians at the London Stadium, Hammers boss David Moyes told Appiah-Forson that if Fornals scored, he would replace him. Early in the second half, Fornals had a golden chance to score but missed and it led to Appiah-Forson being an unused substitute.

READ MORE: David Moyes reveals what Pablo Fornals and Manuel Lanzini did ahead of West Ham's win at FCSB

After what had happened, Fornals promised Appiah-Forson that he would score and the Spaniard did exactly that. Appiah-Forson was set to replace Fornals at 2-0, but seconds before he came on, Fornals got a second goal.

The midfielder admitted at full-time it was a dream to be involved in the game and thanked Fornals for keeping to his promise.

“We got the win, clean sheet and finished top of the group,” said Appiah-Forson. “I've been working for moments like this and as a young player I've dreamed of playing for the first team. I didn't really expect it to be in European competition but I'm really happy.

“All the coaches have been helpful and they've told me to keep working. There's been times where I've thought, 'Is there an opportunity there for me?' But it proves if you keep working hard you'll still get a chance. I got mine and hopefully I took it.

“Pablo Fornals has been great for me with advice. Last game against Anderlecht he missed a chance and the manager said he would've brought me on if he scored. So Pablo promised he would score so I could play and everything worked out well.”

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