Hammers relish gift from poor Pompey

ON the second day of Christmas, Portsmouth gave to West Ham three vital points, for the second year in succession.

Last year’s 4-1 St Stephen’s Day victory at Fratton Park was the first in an eight-game unbeaten run that was only ended by Manchester United in February. How Gianfranco Zola could use a little bit of history repeating itself.

Goals in either half from Alessandro Diamanti and Radoslav Kovac may have dragged the Londoners out of the relegation zone, at least until the third day of Christmas, but the manner of victory did not hint at an unbeaten January. In fact, against better appointed opponents, a callow second half performance could have ended an unbeaten run that only started with last Sunday’s draw here against Chelsea.

Lucky then, for Zola’s men, that in the Premier League’ s bottom team, they found forgiving opponents. Neither of these teams lack technical quality – they are where they are in the grand scheme of things because they are perhaps naïve when it comes to the dark arts.

Once Diamanti scored his third goal in as many games from the spot, after Luis Jimenez was fouled by a combination of Michael Brown and Hayden Mullins, West Ham, at home on Green Street, should have dictated the pace and made things as easy for themselves as possible.

But this is the West Ham who conceded three after going 5-0 ahead at home to Burnley. They do not make things easy for themselves. How much more difficult it would have been without the left foot of Diamanti and the industry of Scott Parker is not something even the most bubbly West Ham fan would want to consider.

Parker was involved in the opening goal, and practically everything else worthwhile that the home side produced. The midfielder epitomises everything West Ham collectively lack at the moment but his aggression, simple passing and wilful determination are such that one man truly can make a difference.

Diamanti’s qualities are far more intangible. The Italian possesses a keen eye and quick mind to accompany his delightful left foot and all three were on show when he chipped a free-kick in the direction of James Collison just before half-time. The 21-year-old shot over but it suggested a level of endeavour that was rarely seen in the second half.

Not that there were not chances. The lively Jimenez, a first-half replacement for the hamstrung Mark Noble, had a shot from the edge of the area deflect off Steve Finnan and Asmir Begovic did brilliantly to tap it around his left-hand post for a corner.

From then though, until Kovac, from Jimenez’s 89th minute free-kick, became, after Diamanti, West Ham’s second scorer this month, Begovic had very little to do but watch the opposing defence retreat further and further into their own territory and their own self doubt.

Robert Green, again dovetailing the reassuring with some fraught moments, had to save from Frederic Piquionne and Kevin-Prince Boateng either side of a run and shot from the latter that ended with a strike into the side-netting.

However Zola’s men held on for their fourth victory of the season and, perhaps more tellingly, their first clean sheet since August and can now look ahead to today’s derby match at White Hart Lane. A second win in the space of two days could only be sweeter if it came against West Ham’s most bitter rivals.

“It is not only us playing two games in two days,” said Zola. “I’m expecting other teams to have problems too so we are not going looking for excuses. We are going to give everything we’ve got Monday.”

Bottom-placed Pompey don’t welcome Arsenal to Fratton Park until Wednesday but Avram Grant – perhaps buoyed by the retention of African Cup of Nations trio Hassan Yebda, Nadir Belhadj and Nwankwo Kanu until Thursday (and possibly Aruna Dindane) – is champing at the bit.

“I don’t make the fixtures and this is what we have. Maybe (Arsenal) is one of the difficult teams to play against. They play football,” said the Israeli. “But we showed that we can play against big teams. We played well against Liverpool and Chelsea and Man U, so hopefully it will continue.”

REFEREE: Lee Probert (Gloucestershire) 7: The penalty decision was not difficult and other than that, the referee had a relatively easy St Stephen’s Day.

MATCH RATING: *** Possibly worth the admission fee for Parker’s midfield display alone. Alessandro Diamanti’s cultured display would have cured a lot of other, insipid, ills.