Bowen double helps West Ham beat Bolton to go top
Date published Tue 8 Sep 2026
By David Anderson BBC Sport England

West Ham surged to the top of the Championship after Gavin Bazunu's error from Jarrod Bowen's shot handed them victory in a hard-fought contest with Bolton Wanderers.

Bazunu made his Bolton debut in place of Jack Bonham and the on-loan Southampton goalkeeper had performed well before he allowed Bowen's 77th-minute shot to pass underneath his hand.

Bowen fired the Hammers in front after 13 minutes before Bolton hit back to take the lead in a frenetic first-half when Ethan Erhahon scored and Ruben Rodrigues converted a penalty.

Konstantinos Mavropanos headed West Ham level shortly after the half-hour mark before Bowen scored his fifth goal of the season to earn the Hammers their third successive win and first league victory over Wanderers since 2007.

Mads Hermansen saved a shot from Samuel Iling-Junior before West Ham opened the scoring through skipper Bowen. Josh Sheehan could only divert Kyle Walker-Peters' pull-back towards Bazunu, one of seven changes from Saturday's 4-0 implosion at Millwall, and, under pressure from Pablo, he knocked the ball to Bowen, who rifled it home.

Back came Bolton and when Mavropanos could only half clear the ball towards the edge of his penalty box, Erhahon was on hand to shoot home his first Wanderers goal off the Greek defender.

Iling-Junior wastefully shot wide before Rodrigues fired Wanderers ahead from the penalty spot in the 27th minute with his first goal of the season when Walker-Peters caught debutant Kyliane Dong.

The contest then became more like a basketball game and the Hammers levelled four minutes later when Arne Engels sent over a teasing free-kick to the back post, where Mavropanos headed home.

The Hammers centre-back was denied a second by Bazunu when the Irishman made a fine reaction save to keep out his header.

West Ham pushed for a winner and Manor Solomon, Joel Piroe and Mohamadou Kante went close before Bowen settled the contest.

Substitute Joel Veltman crossed from the right and Bowen's shot lacked power, but had enough to beat Bazunu to condemn Wanderers to their fourth straight Championship defeat.

However boss Steven Schumacher can take much heart from his side's vastly-improved display from their defeat at the New Den.

Bolton boss Steven Schumacher told BBC Radio Manchester. "We had to show character. I don't want to sound patronising or anything because that's not what I'm like, but the lads are doing really well, they're playing extremely well. They're competing with top teams, showing really good team spirit, showing a really good attitude, carrying out the game plan really well and creating some really good chances and opportunities. If we keep doing this, then I believe results will come. I don't think we've deserved to lose any of the four games that we have done, but this is where we're at and it reminds me a little bit of last year where we were drawing games when we played well. But in this league, it's more punishing."

West Ham head coach Nuno Espirito Santo told BBC Radio London. "It was a demanding match for us, it's a tough place to come and they made our lives really, really hard. Credit to them and it was not always possible to be dominant, but the second half was very, very good. Bolton created problems. We didn't control the pockets. They had chances, corners, they put us against the ropes, so we had to show character in the second half and we did that." On Bowen: "Yeah, he's a skipper. He leads by example. So as long as the boys look around and see him, we're on a good path."

Player of the match 20 J. Bowen average rating 8.53

Bolton Wanderers 2 West Ham United 3
Half Time Bolton Wanderers 2 , West Ham United 2
Bolton Wanderers E. Erhahon (18'), Ruben Rodrigues (27' pen)
West Ham United J. Bowen (13', 77'), K. Mavropanos (31') Assists A. Engels (31'), J. Veltman (77')
Venue: Toughsheet Community Stadium
Attendance: 25,510 (4,599 away)
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