John Carew struck on his home debut to give Aston Villa a 1-0
victory over West Ham.
Villa looked to be coasting to a comfortable victory as Carew
scored late in the first half, but they were almost made to rue a
host of missed opportunities as West Ham rallied brilliantly in the
last ten minutes.
Despite their late flourish Alan Curbishley's side could not force
an equaliser and are now five points adrift of Wigan, with a
mountain to climb to avoid relegation.
After a tentative opening from both teams Villa gradually started
to find some rhythm, and Gavin McCann fired a swerving shot just
past Roy Carroll's left-hand post in the 12th minute.
Stilian Petrov, looking to impress after being linked with a move
away in January, was heavily involved in the early stages and sent
two long-range efforts fizzing off target.
Ashley Young nearly opened the scoring with a cleverly improvised,
left-foot poke from the edge of the area, but Carroll was alert to
the danger and sprang to his right to pull off a superb save.
With Carew also showing some nice touches up front West Ham's
new-look defence appeared vulnerable, and life became more
difficult when Matthew Upson had to be substituted 30 minutes into
his debut.
Upson injured himself landing awkwardly after heading the ball
clear, and Christian Dailly was thrown into the fray by
Curbishley.
West Ham's backline was given no opportunity to regroup however, as
Carew put Villa ahead after 36 minutes. Receiving a forward pass
from Young, the Norwegian held off the attentions of Calum
Davenport just outside the area, swivelled, and crashed a low shot
past Carroll.
The Hammers offered nothing as an attacking force in the first 45
minutes and only sporadically broke out of their own half, and the
pattern continued after the break.
Bobby Zamora and Kepa Blanco were starved of service and only
managed to get into the game when they tracked back to help in
defence, while the midfield quartet were completely out of
sorts.
Young was a bundle of energy as he searched for a second Villa
goal, but he slashed wide when presented with a decent chance on
the edge of the box.
Gareth Barry's weak shot from distance was safely gathered in by
Carroll, before McCann dragged an effort narrowly wide.
Villa were not rewarded for their dominance though and as the clock
ticked down towards the final whistle they started to retreat
further back.
West Ham, sensing an opportunity to salvage an unlikely point,
pressed for an equaliser but could not carve open a resilient Villa
defence. One fluent attack gave Yossi Benayoun a glimpse of goal,
but his shot was crowded out by Petrov and Wilfred Bouma.
Villa nearly secured the points on the counter-attack as Carroll
beat away a blistering Petrov strike, before substitute Patrik
Berger saw his close-range finish ruled out for offside.
In a frantic finish Thomas Sorensen twice came to Villa's rescue
with superlative saves, first tipping over from Matthew Etherington
and then parrying away Davenport's powerful volley.
George McCartney then headed against the woodwork from a tight
angle as Aston Villa clung on for dear life in stoppage time.