‘As you can imagine, it was surreal’
Declan Rice showered with the Kidderminster Harriers players and dished out several West Ham shirts after the two sides’ FA Cup clash on Sunday.
The England international scored a last-minute equaliser for the Hammers to take the game to extra-time, before Jarrod Bowen broke Kidderminster hearts just seconds before the game was heading for penalties.
The National League North outfit – who opened the scoring through Alex Penny in the 19th minute – received deserved praise for taking their Premier League opposition right to the wire in the fourth round tie.
Kidderminster manager Russell Penn has since admitted that losing the game in the manner that they did was ‘heartbreaking’, but praised West Ham for their performance on the day.
“To lose it with ten seconds to go in extra-time was heartbreaking, but I’ve got to say this, West Ham were absolutely superb on the day,” he told talkSPORT Breakfast.
“Declan Rice came into the changing room after the game, gave a load of shirts out and even jumped in the same showers as our lads.
“As you can imagine, it was surreal! But he was the game-changer, he was superb. He was excellent, there’s no doubt he’s going to be absolutely massive in the future.”
Rice. Rice. Baby 🥶
Came for the goal 🤝 Stayed for the celebration 🕺@_DeclanRice #EmiratesFACup pic.twitter.com/Tt1CuQrrX9
— Emirates FA Cup (@EmiratesFACup) February 5, 2022
The 36-year-old also revealed that West Ham boss David Moyes was complimentary of Kidderminster’s gutsy performance and that the Scotsman has invited them to watch the Hammers train.
Discussing the game, Penn said: “Immense pride at the time and I thought we had West Ham rattled. We spoke to David Moyes in the changing room after the game and said he couldn’t see them scoring and had to bring on the big guns to make that happen.
“That’s a big compliment to us. We had the pitch, the hostility around the place on our side. We took the game to them, which is what I wanted to do.
He added: “He [David Moyes] was great. I didn’t expect anything less from him, to be honest. He invited us down to the training ground to watch training.
“He’s invited us to games and said how well set up we were. On the flip side, he said how well they were prepared and how many games they came to watch us, which doesn’t surprise me one bit.”
West Ham face an away tie against Southampton in the fifth round of the FA Cup following their victory over the Harriers.
Related links:
- Roy Keane explains why Ireland didn’t ‘tie down’ Declan Rice and Jack Grealish
- Declan Rice sings Ice Ice Baby to over 50k people live on Twitter space
- Declan Rice is the ‘best player in the Premier League’, Hoddle claims
