West Ham United 2 Sunderland 0

Apr 5 2009 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

Kieran Richardson returned from his two-match ban, while Djibril Cissé and Tal Ben-Haim also came into the side, with the Trinidad and Tobago duo of Carlos Edwards and Kenwyne Jones – both of whom played for their country in midweek – making way, along with George McCartney, who picked up a calf injury playing for Northern Ireland on Wednesday.

Hammers boss Gianfranco Zola made two changes, with Radoslav Kovac and former Newcastle man Scott Parker replaced by goalscorer Stanislas and Matthew Upson.

West Ham started well and forced a couple of early corners, the first of which from the left flank saw centre-back James Tomkins glance a header across the face of goal from eight yards out when he might have done better. But Sunderland came back into the game strongly with Grant Leadbitter going close to opening the scoring twice in two minutes.

First he fired a 25-yard effort just wide of the left-hand post on eight minutes and then a neat one-two with Cissé gave the midfielder a shooting chance from the edge of the box, but this time Hammers keeper Rob Green beat the ball away.

Steed Malbranque then went close with a shot from distance while, at the other end, David Di Michele was given space to turn smartly and hit a volley which flew just past the right-hand post.

Cissé tried an ambitious effort from 35 yards out on the left which forced Green to tip the ball around the post, but that was as good as it got for Sunderland because seconds later they found themselves behind. They wasted the corner kick, Green bowled the ball out to Ilunga on the halfway line on the left and he helped it on to Di Michele, whose intelligent flick-on set Boa Morte away.

He rode a challenge from Leadbitter and got into the box in the left channel, squaring the ball for Stanislas to tap home from six yards.

And only a brilliant defensive header from Phil Bardsley denied the Hammers a second goal on the stroke of half-time with Stanislas poised to apply the finishing touch once again.

Leadbitter brought a good save out of Green early in the second half but then disaster struck for Sunderland as the Hammers doubled their lead and effectively ended the contest.

This time it was a corner from Noble on the right and Tomkins out-jumped West Ham old boy Anton Ferdinand to head down and in at the foot of the right-hand post, although Gordon got a hand to the ball and will feel he should have kept it out.

After that it was virtually one-way traffic as Gordon was called upon to make a brilliant double save from first Tomkins and then Stanislas, again resulting from a West Ham corner-kick.

The game was marred midway through the second half when a clash of heads between Tal Ben-Haim and Jonathan Spector knocked the Hammers’ American defender out cold and he needed almost eight minutes’ treatment on the pitch before he left the field on a stretcher.

Sunderland’s best chances came in injury time with Cissé blazing an excellent opportunity wide of the right-hand post before Leadbitter saw his shot cleared off the line by James Collins soon after.