West Ham 1 Newcastle 2

West Ham started with Cole and Behrami in for Dyer and Boa Morte, with Upson back in defence.

A fairly even first half was rewarded by goals for both sides. West Ham started the stronger of the two teams. This early pressure led to a goal in the 12th minute when Noble played a long ball forward from the halfway line. His ball found Piquionne in behind the Newcastle defence, wide left in the penalty area. Piquionne shot low and hard across the goal, his shot was going wide but Cole got to the ball first to fire in from four yards out.

After the goal Newcastle then began to dominate the play. In the 23rd minute Newcastle got back on even terms, after a cross from the right wing was knocked down in the area by Carroll for Nolan to shoot home from 7 yards.

West Ham then had a reasonable chance straight from the restart after some good work from Piquionne set up Obinna on the edge of the area but his chipped shot was well over.

As the half progressed Obinna's pace on the left wing began to lead to chances for West Ham. In the 36th minute Obinna bombed down the wing and fired a cross into the six yard box. Cole was just beaten to the ball by the Newcastle defence to deny the striker his second from 4 yards. In the 38th minute some more good work from Obinna on the left led to a Parker shot from 35 yards. But his shot flew well over.

So after a fairly even half the sides headed into the break on even terms.


West Ham didn't bother coming out for the second half. At least it didn't look like it. Newcastle were first to every ball, won every 50-50 challenge and West Ham could hardly string two passes together.

Admittedly West Ham didn't have too much luck with Upson and Piquionne both being forced off with injuries. However the writing was on the wall even before Upson's and Piquionne's injuries, with Newcastle looking by far the more adventurous.

In the 69th minute Carroll scored an easy headed goal from a left wing cross. Da Costa seemed to just walk away from the cross to allow Carroll to head home unopposed from 6 yards.

West Ham I think had only one effort on goal in the whole of the half when Da Costa headed well wide from 10 yards.

In truth West Ham were lucky not to lose the game by a wider margin. Mostly this season Grant has been able to get more out of his side in the second half of games but today West Ham offered absolutely nothing after the break.