West Ham win the Europa Conference League Final

West Ham win the Europa Conference League Final.

For those of us of a sentimental disposition you could hardly contain your elation. Nights such as last night were never supposed to happen. You would go through all the motions of the season, reflect on a most horrendous Premier League season and hope to come through unscathed. Never in a million years did it ever occur to you that the season had the most pleasantly surprising twist of all time. You endured the trials and tribulations of a season briefly haunted by the spectre of relegation from the Premier League but forgot about the Europa Conference League competition.

So after 58 years of footballing drought and famine West Ham United have finally won something of real substance and clout, something to boast about to friends and families gatherings. Football got you right here, under the skin, that visceral, inexplicable thrill you get when something good happens to your team. You explode with joy because this is just about the most irrational reaction you can find when your lifelong allegiance to West Ham is finally rewarded. Sometimes you think you deserve to be in the place where you are because this is your turn to win a Cup or trophy after so long without.

And then it came to pass that West Ham won the Europa League  Conference Trophy, perhaps one of the most ridiculed UEFA creations for many years. It was, you suspect, one of the many consolation prizes for those who couldn't quite make the grade to the slightly superior Europa League. It was meant to assuage and pacify all of those supporters who thought they were truly robbed of a place in Europe. So this time it was West Ham's turn, a club who must have been grateful for small mercies after finishing seventh in the Premier League last season.

So last night West Ham and their Italian opponents Fiorentina played out a moderately absorbing Euro Conference Final although there was a sloppy slovenliness about West Ham which rendered this game a miracle to the club who play at the London Stadium. In fact for much of last night's encounter there was a genuine air of battle fatigue with both teams guilty of misplaced passes that could have penetrated both side's defences at various points throughout the game. But we were in the results business here and nobody can now deny the magnitude of West Ham's extraordinary achievement.

For West Ham of course their season has proven to be one of the most embarrassing shambles in recent history. Back in March the club were hovering over the relegation trapdoor, defensively naive, spineless, insipid in attack and simply incapable of stringing together any sequence of victories that might have made the season tolerable. There were the single goal defeats at both Liverpool and Manchester United earlier on in the season. And towards the end of a long, gruelling domestic season, there was the 5-1 humiliation at home to Newcastle as well as the craziest match of them all, a 4-3 defeat to Roy Hodgson's Crystal Palace.

All in all this has been an instantly forgettable Premier League season for West Ham but last night by way of redemption, it all began to fit together like the perfectly executed plan. West Ham had almost swaggered through their European campaign without flinching or batting an eye lid. They remained undefeated and even narrow defeats at the hands of a once great Anderlecht side and a strong, compact AZ Alkmaar of Holland in the Euro Conference semi final couldn't disturb the balance of this well organised and well drilled West Ham team.

Some with fond, nostalgic recollections of years gone by still remember quite painfully of the last time West Ham reached a European Final. It was the 1976 European Cup Winners Cup Final and Anderlecht were West Ham's opponents in the futuristic looking Heysel Stadium. With the Belgian side featuring the cream of the Dutch crop of Rob Rensenbrink and Aarie Haan and their own lustrous Belgian gem Francois Van Der Elst, West Ham could never overcome their nerves and lost the Final 4-2.

But last night the defensive powerhouses of Kurt Zouma, Naif Aguerd, the joyously overlapping Emerson and the sturdy Vladimir Coufal often found themselves desperately scurrying around to repel the rapier like thrusts of Fiorentina's beautiful passing game. At times it was all hands to the pump for the East London club as the team from Florence moved the ball among themselves so delicately and easily that at times West Ham were just gasping for oxygen.

In a city of Renaissance art and historic architecture, Florence has become a culturally uplifting city of varied charms and memorable tourist attractions. But this was not a night of Italian operatic renditions and footballing ingenuity. True, Fiorentina were technically superior for well over an hour and their passing had a World Cup quality about it. But their finishing foundered on a rock of mediocrity and the Italians were restricted to a couple of shots and the occasionally dangerous break into West Ham's well protected defence.

Then the tall and commanding Tomas Soucek joined forces with the magnificently assured Declan Rice, West Ham skipper for the night and still the subject of transfer speculation. Both Rice, Soucek provided an effective buffer between defence and attack, controlling and supervising at the back while Said Benrahma and Jarrod Bowen tried gallantly to turn Fiorentina's defence inside out with a combination of direct and aggressive running.

Then there was the opening goal minutes into the second half. A ball in the Fiorentina penalty area found Bowen charging onto a loose ball, hustling and bustling after the ball but then the ball seemed to bobble up to an Italian's fingers or what looked to be unintentional handball. Bowen's determined burst into the Fiorentina penalty area was rewarded with an unlikely penalty for West Ham. Benrahma, one of West Ham's most consistently impressive forwards, placed a powerful penalty into the net.

At this point Fiorentina although now hot, bothered and perhaps offended at the effrontery of West Ham's opening goal, began to resort to all the tactics of the acting profession, throwing and diving their bodies over quite theatrically and pretending that a sniper had sent them toppling to the ground. But then Fiorentina equalised almost seconds later after West Ham's goal. For all the world it looked as though West Ham would now disintegrate like one of those old chimneys that had to be blown up to make way for more modern developments.

And yet with a minute or two left and then the game inexorably heading for extra time, West Ham suddenly found a second wind. Of course Fiorentina had enjoyed the lion's share of possession and almost passed West Ham off the pitch. But there was nothing left in the Italian side's tank. Now West Ham launched one last concerted bid to snatch the winner against all the odds.

Lucas Pacqueta, finally discovering the Brazilian blend of cultured cunning and the most stunning repertoire of flicks, step overs and delightful footwork at close quarters, stamped his final contribution. Receiving the ball just over the half way, Pacqueta threaded the ball through the eye of a needle with a measured slide rule pass for Jarrod Bowen run onto. With only the Italian goalkeeper to beat in a one on one, Bowen fired the ball home for a winning goal that sent a claret and blue forest of fans into a wild state of celebration and delirium. West Ham had finally conquered Europe and a trophy finally adorns their forlorn looking trophy cabinet. Europa League, here we go again next season.