West Ham United 0, Stoke City 1 (Fuller, 69)

By Michael Baggaley

 

RICARDO Fuller shook off a bout of food poisoning to score a fabulous individual goal and give Stoke City a 1-0 win at West Ham this afternoon.

The striker was only able to start on the bench because of the illness, but struck just two minutes after coming on as a 67th-minute substitute.

He gathered the ball on the edge of the area and waltzed past three defenders on his way to his seventh  - and surely his finest - goal of the season.

The win moves Stoke up to 39 points, just one short of manager Tony Pulis's safety target, with seven games still to play.

City also had to overcome injuries to Abdoulaye Faye and Dave Kitson during the game. But they rarely looked in trouble against a relegation-haunted West Ham side who are short of confidence after five successive defeats. 

Matthew Etherington was also suffering from the bug, but started on the left before being replaced by Fuller. Mama Sidibe had come into the starting line up for Fuller while Liam Lawrence was recalled on the right for the suspended Dean Whitehead. 

City were also without Ryan Shawcross who is still trying to shake off an ankle injury.

West Ham made five changes to the team beaten 3-1 at home to Wolves on Tuesday as Kieron Dyer, Mido, Mark Noble, Jonathan Spector, and Manuel Da Costa came in for Radoslav Kovac, Benni McCarthy, Alessandro Diamanti, Fabio Daprela and James Tomkins. The Hammers also brought their advertising boards closer to the pitch to try to blunt Rory Delap's long throws.

Stoke didn’t score from one ….but there was no stopping Fuller.

Stoke had their best chance of the first half after just six minutes when Liam Lawrence charged down Jonathan Spector's clearance 20 yards from goal. The Stoke winger charged into the area and unleashed a 17-yard strike, but miscued and sent the ball sailing over.

But Stoke were back on the attack as Lawrence's corner was met by a glancing header from Kitson. The ball ran to the back post to Abdoulaye Faye, but his hook back across goal was bundled out for another corner. From that, Matthew Etherington's delivery was met by a header a couple of yards wide from Abdoulaye Faye.

Spector's run into the area was halted by a perfectly-timed challenge from Danny Higginbotham before Faye required treatment after twisting his right knee.

Faye eventually had to limp off on 25 minutes, to be replaced by Andy Wilkinson. Robert Huth moved across to central defence as Wilkinson slotted in at right back.

Huth's first touch in central defence was a poor one as his underpowered header allowed Cole to gallop through...but Higginbotham came to the rescue with a vital challenge.

Higginbotham threatened at the other end as he rose to meet Etherington's corner, but the defender mis-timed his header well over.

Stoke looked in trouble when Parker's low pass between Wilkinson and Huth sent Cole through on goal. But Thomas Sorensen was qiock off his line, spread himself, and got in a  block before the ball rebounded back off Cole and out for a goal kick.

The keeper could only parry Cole's ferocious snap shot from 20-yards on 33 minutes...and Stoke looked in trouble as the ball rebounded to Mido eight yards out. However, the striker couldn't control the ball, and the chance was gone.

The impressive Parker created yet again when fed Valon Behrami on the left of the area on 41 minutes, but Andy Wilkinson got across quickly to force Behrami to fire high and wide.

Dyer's 18 yard volley was blocked by Huth, but Stoke threatened in first-half injury time when Lawrence's clever pass found Kitson on the edge of a crowded area. The striker tried to find room to shoot, but his effort was blocked by Manuel da Costa.

West Ham replaced Dyer with crowd favourite Diamanti for the second half, and Dave Kitson was also off three minutes after the restart, and replaced by Tuncay, after appearing to injure his knee.

Parker's 25-yard swerving effort was too close to Sorensen before, at the other end, Huth's thunderbolt free kick crashed into the unfortunate Parker.      

Cole looked West Ham's most likely chance of a breakthough, but Sorensen got across to claim the striker's 25-yard curler on 55 minutes.         

City made their final change, on 67 minutes, as Fuller replaced Etherington. 

Delap knocked an advertising board over, to allow more room for a throw in. The stewards replaced the board, but not before an enraged Hammers fan had run from his seat towards the Stoke midfielder. He got nowhere near the player before being thrown back into the crowd by the stewards.

The home fans were even more enraged moments later when Fuller gave Stoke the lead within two minutes with a brilliant individual goal. A West Ham throw was hooked back to the left-hand edge of the Hammers area towards Fuller. He controlled it, skipped between two defenders on his way to goal before shimmying past a third. With just Green now to beat, Fuller let the keeper commit himself before drilling the ball into the middle of the net.  

Stoke almost doubled their lead on 77 minutes when Tuncay's long-range effort was pushed away by Green. The ball ran towards Higginbotham who slid in with a defender three yards from goal, but they sent the ball spinning back across the face of goal. 

Spector drilled a 25-yard strike wide on 83 minutes before Mido was replaced by Benni McCarthy.

The substitute striker appeared to have wriggled free ten yards from goal in the 89th-minute, but Huth came to the rescue with a vital challenge.

 

WEST HAM:

Green, Faubert, Upson, da Costa, Spector, Behrami, Parker, Noble (Ilan, 76),  Dyer (Diamanti, 45), Mido (McCarthy, 83), Cole.

Kurcz, Gabbidon, Kovac, Kurucz, Daprela.

 

STOKE: Sorensen, Huth, Higginbotham, AB Faye (Wilkinson, 25), Collins, Lawrence, Whelan, Delap, Etherington (Fuller, 67), Sidibe, Kitson (Tuncay, 48).

Subs: Begovic, Pugh, AM Faye, Moult.

 

Yellow:

West Ham: None

Stoke: Whelan, 59, Delap, 90.

 

Referee: Andre Marriner

 

Attendance

34,564