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Relieved, David Moyes admitted West Ham’s emphatic 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest had been a long time coming.

The Hammers came out of the relegation zone with their biggest win of the season, and only their second in their last 12 Premier League games.

All the goals came in a frantic last 20 minutes, with Danny Ings scoring his first two goals in his first start since a £12m move from Aston Villa last month.

Declan Rice nabbed the third with an excellent curler and Michail Antonio headed in a cross from fellow substitute Pablo Fornals to seal out a much-needed victory.

“How long have I been waiting for that?” Hammers boss Moyes said.

“But it was nice today. We didn’t do too badly in the first half. But certainly in the second we started to play a bit better and when we got the second goal I thought: ‘I’m starting to see West Ham from last year.’ Then the submarines were turned on and they also had an impact.”

Ings’ double came from a combined distance of around six yards, classic poacher shots from centers by Jarrod Bowen and Said Benrahma.

“We needed someone who knew the art, knew the racing, knew where to be,” Moyes added. “Those are the goals you want to see as a center forward. Big credit to him.”

Moyes has retained the support of the Hammers hierarchy despite his terrible form.

He said: “The important thing is that I have incredible support. There has been a lot of noise (outside), but behind the scenes, there is no noise. Sometimes to be a manager you need good owners to stay on the job.

“I didn’t come here with a bottle of champagne thinking everything is fine, but I’m excited to win 4-0, so I’m going to have a glass of wine and enjoy it.

“It hasn’t made up for the number of bad nights I’ve had. But scoring four goals against any team in the Premier League is difficult. It was a very good performance.”

It was also a historic 250th Premier League win for Moyes – only Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have more.

“They are all important,” he said. “If you don’t win the first game, you might not get the second, so if you don’t win 250, you might not get 251.”

Forest is far from safe and boss Steve Cooper has called some of its defenses “unacceptable”.

“It’s really disappointing,” he said. “I know West Ham had a lot of set pieces, but we never felt in great danger of conceding.

“I think we started the second half well and gained momentum, you could feel the tension in the stadium.

“Then we went down 1-0 down to a disappointing goal, but what happened between the first and the third goal was difficult to comprehend and unacceptable in many ways.

“The game was taken from us and we have no one to blame but ourselves. For sure we have to go back to the training ground and have an adult conversation with the players about what happened.”

READ MORE: West Ham 4-0 Nott’m Forest: Ings’ double starts scoring as Hammers defeats Forest to escape drop zone