Goals from Anton Ferdinand and Marlon Harewood at Watford confirmed West Ham's
position in the Coca-Cola Championship play-offs.
Ferdinand chose an ideal time to score his first goal of the season with a
deft finish after 42 minutes, while Harewood underscored the Hammers' second
successive top-six finish with a thumping penalty in the second half.
Although Heidar Helguson won and converted a penalty with a minute remaining,
Alan Pardew's men were well worth three points and put up a professional
performance that bodes well for their play-off semi-final encounter against
Ipswich.
Life at Upton Park has not been a cakewalk for Pardew this season, but he will
savour this achievement - particularly as it meant former club Reading, who lost
3-1 at Wigan, missed out on the play-offs.
Watford's young and inexperienced side rarely threatened West Ham's goal, but
their brief had already been fulfilled after maintaining their Championship
status last weekend.
And after setting up a potential trip to the Millennium Stadium, Pardew will
now be keeping his fingers crossed his side are not lining up alongside them
next season.
Watford may have had one eye on their summer holidays, but they offered stout
resistence to the Hammers' early bluster.
But once news filtered around Vicarage Road that Wigan had scored twice at the
JJB Stadium, West Ham began to express themselves more freely and laid siege on
Watford's goal.
West Ham made the crucial breakthrough three minutes before the break when
Elliot Ward's cross from the left found Ferdinand, who let fly with a
well-executed volley that angled into the corner of the net via a slight
deflection.
Watford began the second half brightly, and fashioned their best chance of the
game when Hameur Bouazza's header off Ashley Young's cross arrowed just left of
James Walker's right-hand post.
West Ham maintained the upper hand, however, and stretched their advantage
from the penalty spot after 70 minutes.
Jay DeMerit misjudged Harewood's flicked through-ball which was the catalyst
for James Chambers to needlessly handle the ball in his own penalty box.
Andy D'Urso had no option but to point to the spot and Harewood did the rest
with a clinical finish.
Substitute Sergei Rebrov's one contribution to the game was to bundle over
Helguson in the penalty box late on.
Helguson scored his 20th goal of the season but it was not enough to prevent
Watford slipping to an eighth home defeat of the season and sending West Ham
into the play-offs.
Teams
Watford Chamberlain, Doyley, DeMerit, Cullip, Chambers, Young,
Bangura, Blizzard, McNamee, Bouazza (Osborne 78), Helguson.
Subs Not Used: Mayo, Kirk, Mariappa, Grant.
Booked: Helguson.
Goals: Helguson 89 pen.
West Ham Walker, Repka, Ferdinand, Ward, Powell,
Newton (Rebrov 83), Reo-Coker (Dailly 90), Mullins,
Etherington (Noble 72), Harewood, Zamora.
Subs Not Used: Bywater, Fletcher.
Booked: Mullins, Reo-Coker, Ward, Repka, Rebrov.
Goals: Ferdinand 42, Harewood 70 pen.
Att: 19,673
Ref: A D'Urso (Essex).
E-mail Article 
Print-Friendly
Subscribe to RSS Feed 
Post to del.icio.us
Facebook