West Ham fans praised by David Moyes after team fight back to earn point against Leicester

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David Moyes praised the club’s home support for standing by his team and compared the atmosphere at the London Stadium to nostalgic memories of Upton Park.

West Ham went 1-0 down inside eight minutes when Marc Albrighton scored but Moyes’ side hit back in his first home game in charge when Cheikh Kouyate headed in shortly before half-time.

The pretext to Moyes’ home bow as West Ham manager featured a social media outcry before he was even appointed, a comprehensive defeat at Watford last Sunday and an increasingly toxic relationship between the club’s supporters and owners. 

David Moyes praised West Ham's supporters after drawing 1-1 against Leicester 

Joe Hart believes West Ham's home draw against Leicester was a step in the right direction

Yet West Ham’s spirit yielded a positive response from the supporters and the crowd even sang the new manager’s name as they rallied in the second half. For Moyes, it marked a pleasing turnaround.

‘We were a bit unlucky to go behind,’ Moyes said. ‘We showed character. We could have easily gone under. I thought the second half was much more like us. It was more like Upton Park. There was a period of 10 minutes where the crowd were right behind the team. We need it, we really do.

‘We got a reaction. We are trying to do the basics as best we can. They ran hard — that should be a given in every game.

‘I felt the passing and play could be better. But the supporters saw the effort from the players.

Goalkeeper Joe Hart told Sky Sports: ‘It could have gone two ways and they just stick with us and I’d like to think we put in a performance. I have stood in goal and didn’t have a lot to do, they could easily have carried on hammering us but I thought they were fantastic.

‘When we have the support, we play better. It made a world of difference to the players. There was steam coming out of the big man (Andy Carroll), working to try to score goals, that’s what they want to see.’

Moyes hailed his side's effort while admitting confidence has been at a low in recent weeks

Carroll kept his cool as the team’s lone frontman and the nasty streak that has overshadowed his play of late did not reappear. Instead, he led the line with doggedness as West Ham fought for a point.

They remain in the relegation zone but are level on points with 17th placed West Brom. The point moved Leicester up to 11th place.

Leicester manager Claude Puel was left to lament his side’s failure to seal a win.

The French coach said: ‘We need to find a clinical edge. We should have killed the game.’