Nuno Espirito Santo heaps praise on Divine Mukasa after two goals against Wolves

Mukasa, the on-loan Manchester City teenager who began his career with the Hammers, scored his side’s first and third goals on a night when Jarrod Bowen and Konstantinos Mavropanos were also on target.

“I’m delighted, not only for the goals but the way he played, the positions he took in the middle of the park,” said head coach Espirito Santo. “He is a young player with a lot of things to improve but I’m delighted to have him.

“I value a lot the goal as you can imagine but more than anything was his position, the way he distributed the ball, the way he supported and defended. And if he can score then fantastic.”

Just two points from the first three Championship games had put the former Nottingham Forest boss under pressure but his side are now up from 19th to 11th.

“We all know it was much-needed, this win,” Espirito Santo added. “The way we are trying to grow and to improve, there were mistakes again today that we need to correct but we were able to be dominant.

“The attacking actions today were much more effective and this is the direction we hope for the team.”

Marshall Munetsi scored Wolves’ first in the 44th minute, making the score 2-1, and Mavropanos put through his own goal in the 69th minute to end the scoring.

Wolves would have gone top with a victory but instead tasted defeat for the first time under new head coach Cesar Peixoto.

He said: “It was not the result we wanted, we created a lot of chances to score. But congratulations to West Ham, they scored more goals.

“Their first goal was a great goal, a shot like that is impossible to defend, but for five minutes after that we were quite disorganised and conceded the penalty. West Ham’s third goal was a little lucky.

“For the corners and the free-kicks my goalkeeper was blocked all the time and for the fourth goal they score. It is an unfair result. Two goals difference is unfair.

“The last game we won 4-1 and nothing was 100 per cent good. In this game nothing was 100 per cent bad. When we went 4-1 down the team reacted to score one more.

“The good thing is that the team stayed organised and as a team to the end. It was an amazing effort from the players but we have to improve some things.”

Espirito Santo, who took Wolves up from the Championship when he was in charge, felt the same way about his players.

“If we look at the goals we conceded requires more than anything focus, concentration and determination,” he said. “We must get there, there are a lot things to work on.”