Birmingham 1 West Ham 0

West Ham started the game really poorly and Birmingham had all the early momentum. In the opening ten minutes Birmingham won a succession of corners and twice forced Green into making saves. One was from a flicked effort by Johnson from a corner and the other from a Larsson header.

It took West Ham about 30 minutes before they started finding some rhythm. In the 31st minute Diamanti had West Ham's best effort of the half, beating three players on the left wing and then shooting from the edge of the penalty area into the side netting, just wide of the left hand post. A minute later and another Diamanti effort flew just wide of the other post.

Apart from that West Ham's only other real efforts were two long shots from Stanislas both of which were on target but failed to really trouble the keeper. Just before the end of the half Birmingham probably had the best chance to open the scoring when Jerome headed over from 6 yards.


West Ham were OK for five minutes in the second half. In the 50th minute Diamanti tried a chipped shot from ten yards out from the right of the penalty area and just missed the left hand post. However a minute after that Stanislas gave the ball away just inside his own half and two quick passes found Bowyer unmarked ten yards out. His shot beat Green and Birmingham took the lead.

In the 64th minute Ridgewell had a golden opportunity to make it 2-0 but he somehow managed to shoot over from about two feet out. In the 68th minute Collison and Dyer were brought on for Kovac and Stanislas. Dyer almost had an immediate impact winning the ball on the halfway line and driving straight at goal. His shot from the edge of the penalty area looked destined for the back of the net but hit the right hand post and bounced back into play.

In the 77th minute Noble was sent off after winning the ball in a tackle, which the ref strangely decided to reward with Noble's second yellow. West Ham down to ten men however seemed to put up more of a fight. In the 81st minute Diamanti fired a freekick from just outside the penalty area inches over the bar.

In the 81st minute Nouble came on for ILunga. In the 85th minute a great ball from Parker played Franco into the area but his 8 yard shot was saved by Harte with his feet and Dimanti's shot following up was headed clear. In the 87th minute it was Jerome who found himself in behind the West Ham defence, at the other end of the field, but his shot, from just outside the West Ham area, narrowly missed wide of the right hand post.

In the closing minutes of the game West Ham pressurised the Birmingham goal and won a succession of corners. Parker, Diamanti and Franco all managed efforts on goal but it was too little too late and Birmingham held out for the home win.