Knowing that progression was almost sewn up, David Moyes made seven changes to his XI from their 2-1 win against Burnley on the weekend, and that amount of alterations showed in his West Ham side as they looked disjointed and struggled to make an impact on the first half.
Instead, UEL new boys Bačka Topola looked the better of the two throughout the opening 45 minutes, and came closer to breaking the deadlock.
Having scored just four times and with one point to their name in their maiden campaign, the home side had promising openings throughout the first half, the best of which came after Aaron Cresswell sloppily gave the ball away on the edge of his own box, allowing Aleksandar Ćirković to try an effort on goal but Łukasz Fabiański was able to make a save.
In an otherwise lowkey first period, that was the closest either of the two sides came to opening the scoring.
The sloppy nature of West Ham’s play continued after the break as they stuttered throughout the second half, struggling to create any clear goal scoring chances TSC still looked the likelier to net an opener and just past the hour mark, Uroš Milovanović saw a snapshot from just inside of the box sting the palms of Fabiański.
Whilst the Hammers failed to create many chances and looked like they were going to have to face the tough task of beating Freiburg on the final matchday to finish top of the group, Souček popped up at the back post in the 89th minute to volley in Maxwell Cornet’s cross, giving Moyes’ side a vital victory.
The Hammers now need to just avoid defeat against the German side on matchday six and they will finish top of Group A, while TSC must beat Olympiacos to climb off the foot of the table.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Łukasz Fabiański (West Ham United)
