West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola was happy to finally enjoy that winning feeling again after watching his relegation-battlers move clear of the bottom three as Burnley were beaten 5-3 at Upton Park.

The Hammers were well in command at the break, through goals from Jack Collison and Junior Stanislas, before Carlton Cole - who would later go off injured - converted a penalty as Burnley were made to pay for poor defending after what had been a bright start by the visitors when Clarke Carlisle's header was cleared off the line.

Guillermo Franco headed in a fourth on 51 minutes, with a penalty from substitute Luis Jimenez making it 5-0.

However, Burnley - who have just one point from seven away matches on their return to the top flight - made a fight of it in the closing stages with a late double strike from Steven Fletcher. The visitors finished with 10 men when, in stoppage time, captain Steven Caldwell was shown a straight red for pulling down Zavon Hines, before going up the other end and scoring a third away goal through Chris Eagles.

The manner in which West Ham faded during the closing stages meant there was a sense of relief around Upton Park at the final whistle - the fans having seen Zola's team throw away a winning position before this season.

"It was an entertaining game, although I would have preferred to have conceded fewer goals - but you can't have everything," said the Hammers boss.

"Right now we are very good coming forward, we just need to keep the balance when we are defending. We switched off too early. But we wanted the three points today, and we have to be happy with that.

"I will take a lot of positives from this game - we scored another five goals. Going forwards we are doing very well."

Zola added: "Come on - if we lose it is negative, if we draw it is negative, we score five goals and win, and it is still negative.

"We should be cheering. It has been a great game, and we have scored five goals. We must all enjoy it.

We scored more goals than the opposition, and that is the most important thing.

"We know we have to get better in defence, but if you keep watching everything under the microscope, you will always find something wrong.

"I want to see good things, and we will keep working."

Zola revealed Cole, who had just come back from injury, was set for a scan on his knee.

"It is too early to say how bad it is. We have to wait a bit to assess him," said the West Ham boss,

"Hopefully it is not going to be too bad."

Burnley manager Owen Coyle had selected the same starting XI for the fifth consecutive Barclays Premier League match.

The Clarets boss felt his men were punished for some poor decisions - both by themselves and referee Chris Foy.

He said: "We were the architects of our own downfall.

"We gifted some soft goals, and made individual errors at the wrong time.

"I am loath to criticise officials, because I know how difficult the job is, but there were some big decisions which went against us, like on the second goal when Franco controlled the ball with his arm. Is the third a penalty? I don't know.

"On another day, maybe they will go for us.

"But at 5-0, it would have been really easy to feel sorry for ourselves and hide.

"However, they showed tremendous bravery and courage to score some tremendous goals.

"It was another learning curve for us."

Coyle added: "We need to brush up on the individual mistakes, because you will not get away with it against the quality the Premier League holds.

"We will take our medicine, continue to work hard and look to get better because we have the players who can pick up points."