Not one for the purists, but Potter off the mark with West Ham

West Ham United fans expect new manager Graham Potter to bring some style back to their team's football after a dispiriting and brief Julen Lopetegui reign but the new coach was happy to win ugly against Fulham on Tuesday.

In Potter's first Premier League game in charge, West Ham were largely second best against Marco Silva's side but managed to win 3-2 thanks to being gifted two goals by their London rivals.

The former Brighton and Hove Albion and Chelsea manager looked relieved at the final whistle as West Ham hung on in the face of a Fulham siege to move to 12th in the standings.

Potter admitted it was "not perfect" but after the best part of two years since his last Premier League game, a morale-boosting win was the priority, stylish or not.

"It was probably not one for the purists but from our point of view we are delighted with the three points," Potter said.

"I think we started the game a little bit passive and credit to Fulham for being in the game well and we tried to get the crowd a little bit more involved."

West Ham were run ragged early on but were gifted their opening goal as Fulham's Andreas Pereira played a careless loose pass across his own area and Carlos Soler took full advantage to thump a shot past Bernd Leno.

Potter introduced Danny Ings off the bench in the second half and the substitution paid off as the forward closed down a dawdling Leno and the ball broke for Lucas Paqueta to score what turned out to be the winning goal.

"I didn't think we were going to win the game by playing nice football," Potter said. "It was about forcing an error and creating something out of nothing."

Alex Iwobi scored both of Fulham's goals to twice bring his side to within one goal of their hosts but their eight-match unbeaten run in the league came to a disappointing end.

That run included six draws and manager Silva was left with a familiar feeling that his side had not got the points their performance deserved.

"There was only one team that was on the pitch trying to win the game until we conceded that first goal that we gave them," Silva, whose side had 21 goal attempts to West Ham's three, said. "We controlled the game and hit the crossbar.

"We showed the quality until then, but we have to keep the standards up throughout the game."

Fulham remained in ninth place with 30 points.