West Ham 4 Portsmouth 3

West Ham started with Lansbury replacing the departed Parker and Faubert keeping out Bentley on the wing.

West Ham's terrible home form seemed set to continue when Portsmouth scored as early as the 8th minute. Varney got Portsmouth's opener when his shot from just inside the penalty area was deflected into his own goal by Cole.

From the restart Cole was fouled 25 yards out from goal allowing West Ham immediately back into the game. Taylor sent a low freekick goalwards, the ball took a slight deflection to beat Ashdown in goal.

After getting the equaliser instead of West Ham pressing on it was actually Portsmouth who shaded the rest of the half, with West Ham again reverting to their rather dodgy home form.


In the 53nd minute Lansbury got his debut goal. Lansbury's shot, from 16 yrds out, took a deflection off Pearce and just had enough pace to trickle over the goal-line. It took Portsmouth just seven minutes to get back on equal terms. In the 60th minute David Norris headed home from close range, from a Huseklepp cross.

It really looked like it was going to be another disappointing game for West Ham until Liam Lawrence was sent off for a second yellow card after a foul on Bentley. Portsmouth had put in a combative performance all afternoon and a red card was always on the cards.

In the 70th minute the impressive Lansbury tried a little ball juggling in the area which was disrupted by a Pearce handball. Noble stepped up and struck the ball home, with Ashdown diving the wrong way. In the 76th minute West Ham got their fourth with a Cole header from a Taylor cross.

West Ham's afternoon was slightly spoilt in injury time when Piquionne was sent off for a hand in the face on Halford. Immediately from the restart Ben Haim fell over in the West Ham area and the ref gave a penalty. With the last kick of the game Halford converted the penalty.


So an incident packed game ends with West Ham getting their first home win since March.