Aston Villa	1 - 0	West Ham
Scorers Carew 36	Half Time ( 1 - 0 )	Booked Reo-Coker 45

It seems that not even £17 million can save West Ham at the moment as the Hammers slumped to a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Aston Villa. It was a day to forget for Alan Curbishley’s men who lost new signing Matthew Upson to injury after just 28 minutes whilst the Villains grabbed all three points with John Carew’s first goal for the club nine minutes before the break.

After the recent spending spree Eggert Magnusson might have been expecting an immediate improvement. The Hammers were well beaten during midweek by Liverpool and despite a late rally at Villa Park, the East Londoners now find themselves five points adrift of safety.

With all the talk about Matt Upson in the media spotlight all week, Alan Curbishley must have been hoping his new signing would confound the critics. However, the former Birmingham man failed to last beyond the first 28 minutes as he appeared to injure himself after an aerial challenge with Gabriel Agbonlahor.

Upson limped off much to the disbelief of his manager and just eight minutes later there was even more reason for the Hammers boss to look despondent.

With so much talk about West Ham’s recent acquisition it was easy to forget about the arrivals at Villa Park. Yet it was two recent recruits that linked up quite splendidly to give Villa the lead with nine minutes of the first half remaining.

Ashley Young played Carew through on goal and the former Lyon man made no mistake with a powerful finish past Carroll.
The second half saw Villa dominate and the home side came within inches of doubling their lead as McCann’s rasping effort sailed wide of the West Ham upright.

With time running out the Hammers did eventually switch into gear but by then it should have been over with Petrov only being denied by a terrific piece of agility by Roy Carroll.

The home side thought they had made the game safe late on when Berger slotted home but the Czech’s strike was ruled out as West Ham clung on to the smallest piece of hope they could engineer.

The Hammer finally forced opportunities and both Davenport and Etherington were denied by Sorensen before Etherington saw his effort deflected onto the cross bar by Bouma to deny the former Spurs winger.

Villa held on for a deserved victory whilst West Ham were made to rue the injury to their new defensive signing. The Hammers failed to compete for a large majority of the game and in the end were made to pay for their inadequacies.

Five points from safety and with new signings Lucas Neill and Matt Upson both injured already, Alan Curbishley will be hoping his side can take 3 points off basement boys Watford next Saturday in a real relegation six-pointer.


Aston Villa: Sorensen, Bardsley, Mellberg, Cahill, Bouma, Petrov, McCann, Barry, Agbonlahor, Carew (Berger 73), Young (Ridgewell 90).

Subs Not Used: Taylor, Davis, Maloney.

West Ham: Carroll, Spector, Davenport, Upson (Dailly 30), McCartney, Benayoun, Reo-Coker, Quashie, Boa Morte (Etherington 61), Zamora, Blanco (Harewood 60).

Subs Not Used: Green, Mullins.

Att: 41,202

Ref: C Foy (Merseyside).

By James Masters