Ricardo’s on target to lift the Hammers
Peterborough West Ham 0 2 Leicester Nottmforest
TWO goals in five minutes kept West Ham’s automatic promotion hopes alive last night. Ricardo Vaz Te broke the deadlock and Gary O’neil added a second to help move Sam Allardyce’s side to within a point of second-placed Reading, who visit Upton Park on Saturday.
West Ham have now put together an 11-match unbeaten run but wins have been relatively scarce, with seven draws among the 11 games played. Last night was a match they desperately needed to win to keep t he pressure up on Reading.
With Southampton five points clear at the top of the npower Championship, this is increasingly looking like a scrap for second place.
West Ham, as so often over the past few weeks, were ponderous in turning defence into attack in the opening 20 minutes.
The midfield five — and it was five last night, whatever their manager says about playing three up front — offered plenty of width in Matt Taylor and Vaz Te, but little guile, pace or creativity to supply lone striker Carlton Cole.
Peterborough, who did West Ham a huge favour at London Road eight days ago by beating their promotion rivals Reading, were, by contrast, lively straight from the kick- off. Lee Tomlin had the first shot on target, a low right-foot effort and Paul Taylor also tested Robert Green in the opening ten minutes.
Darren Ferguson was incensed Peterborough did not get a penalty just before half-time when left-back Tommy Rowe went down in the box, but George Boyd had an excellent chance to make amends just seconds later, only to see his shot blocked by James Tomkins.
The 5,000 visiting fans were not happy. The chants of ‘Paolo Di Canio’ were barely audible just before kick-off, but grew in intensity as the half went on.
‘You’re not famous any more,’ goaded the Peterborough supporters after watching fierce shots from Rowe and Lee Frecklington blocked.
‘We play on the floor,’ countered the West Ham fans, upset that one of their team’s best first-half chances came from a 30-yard Mark Noble free-kick. It was a chant that was repeated throughout the first half as West Ham were limited to long-range shots from Taylor and Noble.
But whatever Allardyce said at half-time, it worked. First Vaz Te, back in the side after missing three games with a hamstring injury, scored his second goal at London Road this season for his second club. The 25year- old, who also scored in Barnsley’s 4-3 win in December, headed home Taylor’s cross in the 52nd minute.
After Nolan had sent a left-foot shot whistling wide of the upright, O’neil tried the same tactic, this time finding the bottom left-hand corner from the edge of the area to make it 2-0.
Peterborough were unlucky not to pull a goal back eight minutes later, when Frecklington’s right-foot shot was palmed away by Green.
But Nolan nearly scored a cheeky third for West Ham seconds later, only to see his impudent back-heel come back off the crossbar. NIGEL PEARSON’S late charge towards the play-offs has owed much to Leicester’s form at the King Power Stadium. Leicester went into this fixture on the back of four straight home victories but found Forest a far different proposition to the side that faced them two months ago. A Jermaine Beckford hat-trick in an FA Cup third-round replay reassured the home support that Pearson was on the right track and sparked all manner of protests from the travelling fans following a four-goal thumping. Steve Cotterill had to endure chants for former boss Billy Davies from the fans who had made the short trip across the East Midlands. But Forest have undoubtedly improved since then — as have Leicester. Home