West Ham United are all set to travel to the City Ground to take on Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Saturday.

Julen Lopetegui is still under pressure, in spite of Sunday's Premier League win over Manchester United, and West Ham cannot afford to lose to Nottingham Forest this weekend.

The Hammers players showed some real signs of improvements during the second-half against Man United, but the game at the City Ground will represent a really stern test for them.

Nottingham Forest have been absolutely flying this season, and they are currently sitting in seventh spot in the Premier League table, just two points adrift of the Champions League places.

A draw would actually be a decent result against Forest, but I genuinely think we have the quality needed to win the game, if the players turn up of course.

West Ham dealt major blow ahead of Nottingham Forest clash The Premier League have announced via their official website that our old nemesis Peter Bankes will be in charge of our clash with Nottingham Forest at the City Ground this weekend.

As far as I'm concerned, that's really bad news for the Hammers - we have endured some terrible moments when Bankes has refereed our games.

MORE WEST HAM STORIES

Bankes most recently took charge of one of our Premier League games way back in October 2023, during our 2-2 draw with Newcastle.

The end result would have been very different, had the 42-year-old not made so many glaring mistakes, with all of his decisions going Newcastle's way.

Bankes refused to book Bruno Guimaraes for the second time, after he blatantly fouled Jarrod Bowen when we were on the counter attack.

Lucas Paqueta was elbowed in the head by Toon defender Jamaal Lascelles, and Bankes did nothing.

The referee took the biscuit with one decision though. Incredibly, the 42-year-old refused to book Magpies winger Miguel Almiron after he gestured for him to give one Hammers player a yellow card - an offence that Emerson Palmieri committed earlier on in the match and was punished for with a yellow!

Not just incredible inconsistency from Bankes, but downright incompetence in my opinion.

To cap off his horror show of a performance that day, he punished Lucas Paqueta by awarding Newcastle a free-kick, after the Brazilian fairly won the ball from Sandro Tonali.

Peter Bankes has a checkered past with West Ham Going back further in time, Bankes was the man in the middle during our defeat to Brentford in the 2021/22 season, and I'm not exaggerating when I say it was the worst refereeing performance I've ever witnessed.

In the same season, he took charge of our 1-1 draw with Tottenham at the London Stadium, and incorrectly awarded the visitors a penalty - one that was eventually overturned by VAR.

Bankes also played a key role in preventing us from beating Southampton away in the 2021/22 season and Arsenal at the Emirates the year before then with some horrendous officiating.

I do not like it one little bit when he has anything to do with our games, but we've got to put up with his ineptitude once again this weekend.

It's no surprise really is it that Peter Bankes hasn't refereed a Premier League game involving West Ham for nearly 13 months, and I'm absolutely gutted that he will officiate the huge clash with Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

Let's hope we're not talking about him yet again after the game.