Burnley 2-1 West Ham United: Debutant Danny Fox adds to Gianfranco Zola's woes

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West Ham United were left wondering what might have been after they went down to defeat at Burnley after familiar problems continued to haunt Gianfranco Zola’s side, namely their finishing. With only new signing Ilan giving the Hammers some sort of belief against the home side who maintained their dominance from the start.

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The home side got back into the game after that scare and dominated the final minutes of the half, with Wade Elliott coming close with a shot that Green just about managed to deal with.

The Hammers were forced into making a substitution for the second half, with McCarthy having to be replaced by fellow new boy Mido, after the South African picked up a knee injury when he raced around Jensen in the late stages of the first half.

Mido made an impact for his new team straight away, coming close to scoring after fellow frontman Carlton Cole had managed to thread a cross over to the Egyptian, who was unlucky not to mark his debut with a goal.

While it was the Hammers new boys that were expected to be involved in the scoring, it was actually one of the Burnley new boys that would extend the home side's lead when Fox scored with an exceptional free kick after Collison had given away a set piece, needlessly. That left West Ham keeper Green with no chance and left Zola searching for answers.

They nearly halved the lead after just 60 seconds when Cole found Parker with a ball that the midfielder aimed towards the goal, only to see Jensen palm the ball wide for a corner which the visitors could not capitalise on.

West Ham came even closer to cutting Burnley’s lead when Julien Faubert whipped in a dangerous cross which was headed by Parker to James Tomkins who nodded goalwards. The ball was finally nudged into the net by Cole who was adjudged by the assistant referee to be offside.

They came close again, when substitute Junior Stanislas hit a free kick similar to that which Burnley scored with, but the youngster was left disappointed when he saw the ball smack off of Jensen’s bar and out for a goal kick.

Zola, who was looking at his side being, dragged back into the bottom three decided to go for broke by taking off midfielder Mark Noble and handing a debut to another one of his deadline signings, Brazilian striker Ilan.
 
That change was to help Zola, when Ilan managed to prod home with his first touch on 80 minutes. That followed both Cole and Mido faling to find the target from close in.

Backed by a large travelling support, the Hammers continued to pound at the Burnley defence and were unfortunate not to see an equaliser, when Ilan got on the end of corner, but was left disappointed when the ball was turned wide for another corner.

Mido was next to see an effort bounce off the woodwork, when he had looked to have got West Ham back on level terms as the game went into injury time. That was followed by a Jonathan Spector shot which went wide and left the Hammers exiting Turf Moor with nothing.  Brian Laws, by contrast, will be relieved to get his first three points as manager and witness some post-Owen Coyle cheer at Turf Moor.