West Ham 3 - 0 Stoke

Stoke Hammerd

West Ham finally escaped the bottom three after smashing Stoke 3-0 at Upton Park Saturday.

The visitors started out as the more positive side and came close to opening the scoring when Irishman Rory Delap fired in a low cross that found Walters, but Robert Green managed to reach out a hand to tip the Stoke strikers effort safely over.

Despite the early pressure it was West Ham that fired first after Bergovic and Wilson had a mix up dealing with Mark Nobel's through ball. As the two collided West Ham striker Ba was able to poke the ball into the empty net.

West Ham suddenly had the edge, and 8 minutes later they were able to double their lead. After Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross pulled down Scott Parker Thomas Hitzlsperger swung the resulting free-kick to the far post where Da Costa waited to head home the Hammers second.

Stoke found themselves second best to a dominating West Ham side that could have had a third before the break, Piquionne firing into the side-netting after a deflected strike fell at his feet and Hitzlsperger seeing his volley tipper over by Begovic as half-time drew near.

West Ham continued after the break striking Stoke on the counter-attack, Carlton Cole seeing one effort fly just wide, one shave the post, Begovic was called on again to deal with the Hammers striker's third attempt at finishing off any chance of a Stoke comeback.

Those duties were left to Hitzlsperger who, with seven minutes to go, smashed home a blocked strike of Piquionne's and wrap up another vital win for the club which 2 months ago looked dead and burried.

Speaking after the game Tony Pulis reflected on a frustrating afternoon in London
“It was a bad day at the office for us,

“I thought we were in control of the game for the first 20 minutes, but then it all went wrong.

“I didn't think we played that badly, particularly in certain patches, and it definitely wasn't a 3-0 defeat because we created the chance to get back into the game.

Stoke hover 4 points above the relegation battle, but with no point away from home in 5 games and a difficult run in to the end of the season Pulis' men are not guaranteed Premiership football in 2011/12 just yet.