The 30-year-old returned to his home town Shrewsbury and denied his old club with three first-half saves.

But the England keeper had to take a baseball cap from a Hammers fan behind the goal to keep the low sun out of his eyes after Aaron Cresswell borrowed his.

“I was very grateful – we have one in the kit van but Aaron’s hair is that bad that apparently last game he took it and he is ‘rocking’ the Umbro cap!” said Hart.

“I didn’t have one available so someone in the West Ham end very kindly let me one. I would have taken a hat, sunglasses – all sorts. I couldn’t see a thing.

“I think the fans could see I was impeded and someone threw one on so I was grateful.”

West Ham boss David Moyes blamed the sun as a factor after his side failed to bridge the 31-place gap between the teams.

“Sometimes it’s not easy – the conditions with the sun didn’t make it easy for players to see things around them,” he said. “But it didn’t stop the fact that we didn’t compete on all occasions. I don’t think we showed any quality.

“The disappointing thing for me was we didn’t show enough steel. When you come to these places you have to show you’re up to it physically and you can battle and compete, but that was probably the worst thing about it.”

Hart had missed the previous four games after being replaced by Adrian, but Moyes was sufficiently impressed by his performance to guarantee him Premier League games before the end of the season.

“Joe made a couple of really good saves and will play a lot in the League between now and the end of the season,” said Moyes.

“Joe’s been great. A couple of times people have asked me the question [about his response to being dropped] but he’s been very good.

“He’s been No1 everywhere he’s been but he’s got somebody here in Adrian who’s playing well.”

Shrewsbury boss Paul Hurst reckoned his side had faced harder tests against League One basement side Bury.

“Yes them, Wigan, Blackburn – we’ve got them to come in the next league fixture – and different types of games,” he said.

“I don’t mean that being disrespectful to West Ham but I really felt the game was there to be won.

“It sounds silly but we’ve had tougher games and that’s why I thought the match was there to be won.”

Shrewsbury were the better side from the start but could not make their superiority count. Omar Beckles’ 25-yard drive cleared Hart’s bar by a foot before the Hammers keeper was forced into two crucial saves.

First Mat Sadler burst from the back and saw his left-foot drive beaten away, then Alex Rodman’s low shot from a similar spot went the same way.

Shrewsbury remained the more likely scorers into the second half, even remaining untroubled when they were down to 10 men for several minutes after Sadler went off to have his gashed head bandaged.

The League One side continued to make a mockery of the two division, 31-place gap between the teams well into the second period.

Shrewsbury piled men forward and Rodman could only drill a bobbling effort straight at Hart when he perhaps should have crossed.

West Ham lost Winston Reid to a groin injury late on, to be replaced by Domingos Quina.

And after he went off, Shrewsbury wasted another chance of glory when Jon Nolan blazed over from substitute Max Lowe’s pull back after Aristote Nsiala headed across goal and Josh Cullen was caught dawdling on the byeline.

Shrewsbury broke away in time added on through Nolan but after finding Lowe, the left back ran into trouble.

Cullen went to hospital afterwards after losing two teeth, but it was the Hammers who were toothless on the day.