Dean Henderson produced a standout performance as Nottingham Forest beat West Ham United on Sunday.
The highlight of the goalkeeper’s terrific display was an excellent save to deny Declan Rice from the penalty spot as the hosts got their first Premier League points on the board. And teammate Jesse Lingard seemingly played his part in the key moment at the City Ground.
The Reds were leading 1-0 at the time, after Lingard’s scuffed shot hit a defender and rebounded into Taiwo Awoniyi’s shin and into the net. A handball against Scott McKenna presented the visitors with an opportunity in the 63rd minute, however.
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Henderson dived to his right to thwart Rice from 12 yards with an expert stop. And a picture has emerged seemingly showing Lingard, who previously enjoyed a successful loan spell with the Hammers, pointing in the direction where he thought Rice would send his effort.
Forest fan account The Red Trent posted the photograph on Instagram, joking: “Just Jesse telling Hendo where Rice is going to put his peno… Worth every penny.” A “zany face” emoji was added on at the end.
Henderson admitted after the match that training with Rice on England duty helped with his decision of which way to dive. Back-up stopper Wayne Hennessey also pointed in the right direction from the bench.
Asked if he had seen Hennessey’s gesture, the Manchester United loanee said at full-time: "Yeah. Well I know Dec’s favourite side from training with him but you never know if he’s going to change it up last minute. I stuck with what I knew."
Reds boss Steve Cooper said of Henderson's heroics: "In terms of his performance today, I thought he was excellent. He looked a really good goalkeeper.
"The obvious thing is the penalty save and some of the saves he made, but also his distribution and decision making was good. We're a team who want to play with the ball, but I accept second half we have to play with a bit more caution and he managed that really well.
"Tactically, he was good with his positioning. There were a couple of balls which came over and he did well. He did well this week, he did well last week and he'll need to do well again next week.
"Of course you need a confident goalkeeper in this league. At times you need them to have big moments, like a you need strikers to have big moments and captains too - things like that."
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