Fans boo Hammers after disastrous defeat

West Ham 0 Watford 1

West Ham were booed off after another disastrous defeat, this time at home to bottom club Watford.

Darius Henderson’s penalty condemned Alan Curbishley’s side to another morale-sapping reverse and the Hammers fans let the players know exactly what they thought of an expensively-assembled side that appears to be heading straight for the Championship.

Watford’s first penalty award of the season turned out to be enough for only their third Premiership victory of the season and the first away from Hertfordshire, with Adrian Boothroyd’s men having knocked the Hammers out of the FA Cup here by the same scoreline last month.

Referee Alan Wiley went on to award the home side a spot-kick in the second half but crucially Marlon Harewood missed it.

Watford had already made the more assured start when Anton Ferdinand gifted them the penalty in the 11th minute by needlessly hauling Henderson back as the striker chased a ball into the box.

There were no protests; it was a howling error much in keeping with West Ham’s season.

Henderson in contrast had been toiling away manfully all season without a break and was not going to pass up this opportunity to score his first goal of the season. He drilled it calmly past the recalled Robert Green and ran to the away fans to celebrate.

The home side were shellshocked and it showed by the number of misplaced passes, two of which went past Lucas Neill and off the pitch.

A shoot-on-sight policy had also been adopted by the skittish home side but any that were not blocked by defenders’ bravery either went wide or were stopped by new England cap Ben Foster.

Bobby Zamora should have equalised in the 28th minute though when Nigel Reo-Coker’s drive-cum-shot found him six yards out and beyond the last defender; somehow he blazed over.

Four minutes later there was further misfortune for the Hammers as Neill limped off, as he had done on his debut in the cup game, to be replaced by Jonathan Spector.

Zamora failed to hit the target on another three occasions but did set up Benayoun in the box from a quickly-taken free-kick only for Foster to pull off a fine save.

Watford might have doubled their lead in stoppage time however when Malky Mackay, the former Hammer, headed just over from a corner.

There were huge cheers at the restart when the home fans realised Zamora had been replaced by Carlos Tevez, even though the Argentinian has still yet to score a goal for the Londoners.

The 22-year-old had an opportunity to change that when Matthew Etherington went to ground 25 yards in front of goal, a little too easily it appeared. Tevez made good contact with the free-kick but it just cleared the crossbar.

Benayoun then showed good control to get past men in the box and into a shooting position but the finish was weak and straight at Foster.

Tevez came as close as possibly in the 53rd minute when Foster came off his line but could not prevent the South American from taking the ball past him. A shot on the turn saw the ball arc towards an unguarded net but somehow Mackay got back to deflect it wide by the smallest of margins.

Watford had been n the back foot for the second period but a rare attack saw them almost double their lead when January signing Steve Kabba, given a first start, slid in at point-blank range.

Fortunately for Green there was no power in his shot and the goalkeeper gratefully gathered.

The key moment of the afternoon was not long in arriving when Reo-Coker burst through and was brought down on the edge of the box by Hornets skipper Gavin Mahon, who must have feared a red card would follow but in the end was not even booked.

This was also West Ham’s first penalty award of the season but Harewood – one of five players brought back in following last week’s defeat at Aston Villa - could not match Henderson’s earlier cool finish and put it wide with Foster helpless.

Tevez fired over from outside the box as Curbishley’s side sought the equaliser that was eluding them.

Watford were desperate to eat up time and swapped debutant Johan Cavalli for Al Bangura after Adrian Mariappa had been booked for kicking the ball away.

Kabba was replaced by Moses Ashikodi late on and when Nigel Quashie was removed from the Hammers’ midfield there were cheers from the home fans. Fellow new recruit Luis Boa Morte came on but could add nothing to a nightmare afternoon for the home side.