A PRECIOUS Portuguese and a battered old British man o'war destroyed the defences of Nottingham Forest at Upton Park last night to take West Ham United to the last 16 of the English League Cup. Hugo Porfirio set up two goals for lain Dowie, then scored himself.

West Ham began brightly with Porfirio signed from Sporting Lisbon until the end of the season, again showing poise and confidence and shooting wide in the fifth minute after Dowie bad beaten the defenders to a centre from Stan Lazaridis.

The first goal duly came after 16 minutes. Michael Hughes had already shown signs of exploiting the absence of Stuart Pearce, with a back injury, from the left hand side of the Forest defence. Now he found space on the West Ham, right and slipped the ball inside to the busy Porfirio, whose pass presented Dowie with the chance score from five yards.

Forest's attacks lacked any real conviction, yet they drew level two minutes before the half hour when Dean Saunders gathered David Phillips's free kick, turned sharply and crossed for Colin Cooper to nod the ball past Ludo Miklosko.

Porfirio, however, was irrepressible. After 55 minutes, having just dummied Phillips before providing, a hard flat centre which skimmed the head of Lazaridis at the far post, the Portuguese sent Dowie striding clear of the last defender to put West Ham back in front with a shot under the goalkeeper's body.

Ten minutes later Porfirio collected a backheeled return pass from Dowie to increase West Ham's lead with his first goal for the club, and in the 72nd minutes Julian Dicks added a fourth from the penalty spot after Alf Inge Haaland had brought down Lazaridis.