West Ham manager David Moyes faces an FA Cup fifth-round clash at his former club Manchester United, after the Hammers eased into the last-16 with a 2-0 win at third-tier Derby.
Jarrod Bowen scored the opening goal and set up the other for Michail Antonio in a comfortable win for the English Premier League team at Derby’s Pride Park.
Manchester United and West Ham met at Old Trafford in the fifth round two years ago, with the Red Devils advancing with a 1-0 win.
The Derby win means West Ham have won three of their last four games – two of those victories coming in the FA Cup – to ease some of the pressure on under-fire manager David Moyes.
The West Ham boss was sacked as Manchester United manager in 2014 – 10 months after succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford – and is relishing the challenge of facing his former club.
“It’s a really good game for us at West Ham,” he said.
“There’s nothing bigger than Old Trafford, so I’m saying to the players, ‘Come on, let’s go and take it on and challenge them’.
“Man United are playing very well. The manager’s doing a great job there, so it will be a tough, tough game, but why not?
“If you’re going to get to the cup final, you’re going to have to find a way of knocking a few of the bigger teams out along the road.”
Bowen, who scored twice in a league win over Everton in West Ham’s last match, put the visitors ahead with a close-range volley after the ball was assisted on by Tomas Soucek.
Antonio had the simple task of heading home into an unguarded net in the 50th minute after Bowen’s cross from the right deflected into the striker’s path.
Derby boss Paul Warne was proud of the performance of his League One team against their EPL opponents.
“I quite enjoyed the game,” he said. “The simple version is, (West Ham are) better. The lads gave everything they could.
“We had moments where we were excellent and moved the ball really well.
“But credit to West Ham, they defended really well and made it difficult for us to create any real goalscoring opportunity.”
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