Emergency goalkeeper Henri Lansbury kept out Blackpool as 10-man West Ham returned to the top of the npower Championship with a superb 4-1 victory.
In the absence of a specialist replacement, on-loan Arsenal midfielder Lansbury was summoned from the bench to reprise a role he briefly filled for England Under-21s last season after Robert Green was sent off for a professional foul on Blackpool substitute Roman Bednar in the 53rd minute.
At that stage United were 2-1 to the good following a dominant first-half display. James Tomkins planted a header past Matt Gilks and Nicky Maynard slotted home a second as West Ham scored two goals in four minutes, but Kevin Phillips brought the Seasiders back into the contest on the stroke of half-time when he nodded home Alex Baptiste's speculative cross..
But Ian Holloway's men rarely resembled a side on a seven-match unbeaten run and, with the exception of some routine handling that drew huge cheers from the away support, Lansbury was largely untroubled as Gary O'Neil and Ricardo Vaz Te completed a handsome victory.
O'Neil lashed a crisp 20-yard drive into the bottom corner after Winston Reid's effort from Vaz Te's corner was blocked by Stephen Crainey and Vaz Te raced clear of a largely absent Seasiders defence to open his Hammers account in the final minute.
West Ham are now one point ahead of Southampton at the summit with a game in hand, while Middlesbrough's victory at Millwall means Blackpool drop out of the top six.
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Cheers Paul :)
I agree with you Marc, papadragons negative comments do my head in even if we are winning ugly picking up the points.
I can't stand the way he slates Sam, Nolan and Taylor. Would he be the same if Noble got sent off ?
He didn't even answer when I mentioned 2 of Sams old boys scoring last night !
I'm glad that the injury list is going down now so he can loan out the youngsters to get precious match fitness and experiance and Sam must be close to picking his best 11 if they weren't banned !
But this team is different in so many ways, they grind a game, can win ugly and last night like the begining of the season can smash teams again.
COYI
That stick of Blackpool rock tasted just great driving back home , Yep two up front did the trick ,and I take back my douts on Maynard and Vas Te ,lets have more of the same against Palace on Sat. Lets have 11 on the park for 90 mins otherwise we will be setting some sort of record !!. Come on you Irons.
nice to see cole scoring again ?
Headline says - "Lansbury keeps Seasiders at bay"
Body Copy says - "Lansbury was largely untroubled as Gary O'Neil and Ricardo Vaz Te completed a handsome victory"
Who writes these Headlines ?
coyi
coyi
How I do like to be beside the seaside lol COYI what a win. Papadragon, where are you ? I don't miss ur negative comments. 4-4-2 played tonight. Good substitutions and beat a team 4-1 who hadn't lost a game in 7. Papadragon will say Blackpool were tired after saturday's game. Give the Hammers credit, a well deserved win with 10 players. Let's start with 10 in future ! Good goals and nice to see the new lads do well. Papadragon, u didn't think Sam would play the new boys but he did and tehy scored. What else do u want ? apart from moaning the youngsters don't get a chance. When they did, they didn't perform that well and weren't consistent enough. Playing time on loan will resolve some of those issues. It just goes to show that playing with 2 up front like we did at the start of the season is the right thing to do. Sam doesn't always get it right but tonight he did and the bench was strong. COYI
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