Sunderland 3 West Ham 0

West Ham slipped to a heavy defeat at the Stadium of Light, although some shoddy defending didn`t help the cause.

For the long trip north, Big Sam gave starts to Dan Potts and Alou Diarra, unfortunately though both Mark Noble and Joey O`Brien were to miss out through injury. On the bench were the returning from injury Mohamed Diame and our new loan signing Marouane Chamakh.

The Hammers were to start the half poorly and an early chance for Sunderland saw David Vaughan fire wide from eighteen yards out. That effort did little to wake the Hammers up and Sunderland were to take the lead on twelve minutes when Seb Larsson beat Jaaskelainen all ends-up with a marvellous strike from some thirty yards out.

West Ham didn`t offer much going forward until midway through the half when a cross from Demel saw Matt Jarvis fire in a low cross that Simon Mignolet easily saved.

Big Sam made a change at half time bringing on Ricardo Vaz Te for Jack Collison but the Hammers were to go 2-0 down three minutes into the half, courtesy of some poor defending. When Jaaskelainen did well to save from McClean, Dan Potts failed to clear the ball allowing Stephane Sessegnon to swoop and double Sunderland`s lead.

Trailing 20, West Ham were having trouble curtailing Sunderland and only the woodwork stopped the lead being increased when Jack Colback beat Jaaskelainen but not the frame of the goal. But respite was brief with Sunderland did make it 3-0 through James McClean who netted after Sessegnon`s effort was miscued straight to him.

Only when West Ham were trailing 3-0 did they look like scoring. Vaz Te being foiled by a smart save from Simon Mignolet before James Tomkins, on as a first half substitute for James Collins saw his left footed shot saved.

Matters could have gotten worse late on when Alfred N`Diaye, on as a substitute making his debut for Sunderland, dragged a good chance wide, from inside the area.

A very poor day at the office for West Ham!

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