Dreaded drop becomes reality for Hammers

Birmingham 2

The Hammers' 2-2 draw at Birmingham yesterday was not enough to avoid the dreaded drop as Bolton beat Middlesbrough 2-1 at home.

The London club were bottom at Christmas and despite a late rally three wins and a draw from their last four games they were relegated with 42 points.

The club must now face up to cutting their cloth for life in Division One, with a number of their highly-rated stars such as Joe Cole, Jermain Defoe and Michael Carrick not to mention established pros such as Trevor Sinclair and David James expected to be sold to make up an estimated £20m shortfall in income.

Brooking said: "I don't think we will have the same squad of players here at the start of next season. There is now a £15m-plus gap and we have got to reduce our wage bill. That might mean halving it, but we still need a strong enough squad to cope with a 46-game season.

"The players now have to see what this means to them and talk it through with the club and their families. The decisions over who stays and who goes will be a joint thing. I'm sure there will be plenty of speculation in the next few days," he said.

Manager Glenn Roeder, who will undergo surgery this week following the minor stroke he suffered after the game against Middlesbrough on Easter Monday, is to be consulted over any comings and goings from Upton Park, and as for Brooking, his stint as manager ostensibly a success is now at an end and he returns to his work as a television pundit while remaining a director of the club.

Birmingham manager Steve Bruce, whose team were tipped for a swift

return to the First Division but secured their safety last month, added: "If I was greedy I would say we were a minute-and-a-half off finishing 10th which would have been our best position since 1958. But I am just delighted we got a point out of it. There was a 20-minute spell when you saw what West Ham are all about.

"They made it very difficult and credit to our lads, they dug in and managed to get something out of the game.

There are 30,000 people out there expecting that so we were always going to give some sort of performance, but I think some of them have been on the beach in training this week."

Jermain Defoe wasted a good early chance for the Hammers when he hesitated after springing the Birmingham offside trap.

That miss was compounded by news of goals from Per Frandsen and Jay-Jay Okocha for Bolton which meant West Ham could do nothing to save themselves unless Middlesbrough fought back.

West Ham's hopes were raised somewhat when Les Ferdinand stooped to head in Joe Cole's cross from the left in the 66th minute, allied to news that Michael Ricketts a former Bolton player had cut the Trotters' advantage to just one goal at the Reebok Stadium.

But Birmingham were determined to end an excellent first year in the Premiership in style and equalised when Stephen Clemence slotted the ball through to Geoff Horsfield, whose shot looped over David James after taking a deflection off Rufus Brevett.

The Blues were not finished and two minutes from time they went ahead as Stern John stuck out a boot at the far post to turn Robbie Savage's cross into the roof of the net.

West Ham, to their credit, replied instantly as Defoe worked some space and crossed from the right hand side of the box and second-half substitute Paolo di Canio got on the scoresheet for the second week in a row But once the final whistle blew at Bolton, this match became academic and West Ham must now face up to life in Division One.

BIRMINGHAM: Bennett, Kenna (Devlin 73), Purse, Upson, Clapham, Damien Johnson, Savage, Clemence, Lazaridis (Hughes 73), Dugarry (John 63), Horsfield.

WEST HAM: James, Repka, Dailly, Brevett (Di Canio 82), Johnson, Sinclair, Lomas, Cole (Hutchison 87), Defoe, Les Ferdinand, Kanoute.

Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).