A graphic shared on West Ham’s social media channels ahead of this fixture, depicting several players kayaking their way up the river towards Craven Cottage, raised eyebrows for one apparent inaccuracy: each had been equipped a paddle.
Wednesday’s 5-1 drubbing by Newcastle had left the Irons drifting towards you-know-what creek in their fight against relegation, the concession of goals four and five, in particular, seeming to indicate a team growing weary of battling a tide of ineptitude.
Here, though, came the response, a first away victory in the Premier League since August and the gritty performance of a team fully accepting of their predicament.
It was not pretty, with Fulham the controlling side and Harrison Reed’s unlucky own goal the only difference, but given the Hammers had played some of their best attacking football in months in midweek and been pumped, the discrepancy between the values of means and ends has seldom been clearer. Three points lifts the Hammers to 13th and, right now, that is all that matters.
Perhaps it was coincidence, but in making five changes to the side that started against the Magpies, Moyes named an XI that did not include a single one of the eight players signed in last summer’s £170million spree, the first such occurrence since the window shut.
Danny Ings - who came in in January with ‘rescue act’ as his specific brief - was the only member of the lineup who could not be considered old guard and, in the absence of greater quality, if it was a return to the resilience that once defined his side that Moyes was after, he was not left wanting.
Deployed in a genuine 4-4-2, with Michail Antonio and Ings starting together for the first time and Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen operating as lesser-spotted wide-midfielders, tucking in and running their doggies, West Ham defended with some much-needed desperation as Fulham, for all their possession, failed to make a clear-cut chance until 83 minutes in.
Aleksandr Mitrovic, serving the second of an eight-match suspension, has not scored a League goal since January 3, but the hosts still missed the Serbian’s presence, for which Carlos Vinicius offered no substitute as the recalled Angelo Ogbonna was outstanding in heading everything clear.
To rely on his side’s solidity was a ballsy, perhaps even naive, play from Moyes, given three nights ago they had looked about as watertight as a an old tissue box, and a decaying one at that. But with Ogbonna one of three changes to the back four, Vladimir Coufal and Aaron Cresswell the other experienced returnees, Moyes’ old-look defence formed a Thames barrier that Marco Silva’s side could not breach.
This was the Cottagers’ fifth successive defeat in all competitions and their excellent season is in danger of fizzling out, though that it might do so without great concern is testament to the work done so far, and in stark contrast with recent forays into the top-flight.
Silva was missing from the dugout, like Mitrovic banned as a result of his Old Trafford misdemeanours, but presumably gave the instruction from on high for Tom Cairney and Manor Solomon to be sent on at the break, as his side searched for a response to the Irons’ opener.
That had come off the heel of Reed, after Bowen’s composure to jink past his man and reach the byline has left the midfielder scrambling back towards his own goal.
After the break, Bowen would make the visitors’ best chance for an early clincher, sliding Ings in from a tight angle, but the forward’s attempt to lift over Bernd Leno was thwarted as the German stood up well.
Ings was withdrawn soon after as Moyes shelved his two-up plan in anticipation of a backs-to-the-wall final half-hour, a decision which, despite the scoreline, prompted a chorus of “you don’t know what you’re doing” from the travelling end. A ‘Moyes Out’ banner raised amid the full-time celebrations told that disapproval towards the Scot has passed the point of no return, whatever happens from hereon in.
In fairness to Moyes, though, the energy brought by Flynn Downes and Said Benrahma in midfield gave his side a much needed counter-attacking threat, both players pinching possession to create openings not exploited.
And so instead came the inevitable nervy finale and, when Pereira was slipped clean through, the moment that Moyes must have feared. But out came Lukasz Fabianski - culpable for a clanger against the Toon - with a vital hand. At the other end, substitute Maxwel Cornet inexplicably declined to square to Benrahma, who would have made the points safe.
West Ham remain far from that, still bobbing around in choppy waters, but at last here showed the appetite required for the necessary voyage upstream.
