West Ham ease to 3-0 win over nine-man Hull

Feb 20, 2010 - 7:11 PM By JAMES PIERCY STATS European Football Writer=

LONDON (SE) - West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola praised his players for their determination and will to succeed after the 3-0 win over relegation rivals Hull at Upton Park.

Valon Behrami put them ahead in the third minute and dejected Hull, later reduced to nine men, never looked like stemming the flow of goals.

West Ham's win took them to 13th in the table with 27 points and Hull's defeat left them teetering above the three relegation places on 24 points.

Zola said: "There are so many teams down near the foot of the table so it was such an important win for us.

"We needed to set the tempo straight from the start and we got that with an early goal and plenty of chances.

"It was never going to be an easy game because Hull are down there with us and both clubs knew that there was so much at stake.

"I was worried about how the players might react after not playing last week but they were fired up today.

"Our goalkeeper Robert Green made a fantastic save in the first half which was worth a goal to us but I could point to others who played so well \2013 Behrami, Kovac and Parker in midfield, Diamanti and Carlton Cole."

Behrami gave West Ham the perfect start, drilling home a shot after taking a pass from Guillermo Franco following a Hull defensive mistake.

Green's magic moment came on the stroke of half time when he turned over a fierce, goal-bound shot from George Boateng.

Hull striker Craig Fagan was sent off in the 53rd minute for what appeared to be a soft challenge on Alessandro Diamanti before Cole got the second six minutes later.

Julien Faubert split the Hull defence and Cole ran on to beat Boaz Myhill with a low shot for his ninth of the season.

The response of Hull manager Phil Brown was to send on three substitutes, only to pay for it soon afterwards when defender Anthony Gardner was taken off on a stretcher, reducing his team to nine men.

The gaps were obvious and in the last minute Faubert completed Hull's misery when he smashed home West Ham's third.

Brown was unhappy with the sending-off and by the way his team gave away such a sloppy opening goal.

"We came into the game full of hope. We felt if we could hold on for 20 minutes the crowd might turn against their team and we could exploit some gaps they tend to leave in defence.

"But we gave away an inexcusable opening goal after two or three minutes. All the plans we had worked on disappeared straight away, the crowd got behind West Ham and overall it was a terrible day at the office.

"That was compounded by a ridiculous sending-off and two bad injuries to Gardner and Andy Dawson. Now we have eleven cup finals to the end of the season."