FULL TIME: Burnley 2 West Ham 1 (From Lancashire Telegraph)

FULL TIME: Burnley 2 West Ham 1

4:58pm Saturday 6th February 2010

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BRIAN Laws has picked up his first win as Burnley boss after a hard-fought victory over fellow strugglers West Ham.

The Clarets increased their one goal lead ten minutes after the break when new-boy Danny Fox curled in a sublime free-kick from the angle of the box.

With Tyrone Mears in full flight he was pushed by Jack Collison who conceded the foul on the very edge of the penalty area.

But if West Ham thought they had gotten away with it by not giving away a penalty they were sorely mistaken as Fox’s sweet curling effort found the top corner at Robert Green’s far post to give him the perfect start in a Burnley shirt.

David Nugent opened the scoring on 14 minutes after some lax defending from the visitors that manager Gianfranco Zola will no doubt be unhappy with.

Debutant Fox had a hand in it as his long ball over the top caught England man Matthew Upson flat-footed, leaving the on-loan Portsmouth striker to calmly lob over a helpless Robert Green to give his side a precious lead.

West Ham finally got their goal through new signing Ilan after he benefitted from some good fortune in the Burnley box.

Carlton Cole seemed to be going nowhere in the box but his clever flick over the top caught out the home defence and found Mido.

As the Egyptian striker flicked a toe at the ball he was crowded out by Jensen and two defenders, but in turning his effort away the ball fell straight to the Brazilian striker who was free in the box to power home despite the lunging efforts of Fox.

The goal set up a frantic finale as West Ham poured forward in search of an equaliser.

Ilan was again involved but his back-post header was beaten away by a very busy Jensen in the Burnley goal.

Mido almost rescued a point in the last minute of normal time but he hit the post with Jensen beaten and Ilan could not adjust quickly enough to meet the rebound.

The visitors nearly got back into the game immediately after the restart, but a fierce effort by Mido, who replaced former Blackburn striker Benni McCarthy at half time, flew just wide of Jensen’s post.

Burnley nearly made sure of the points in injury time but Andre Bikey’s long range effort was seen just wide by Robert Green.

West Ham thought they had got themselves a goal 20 minutes into the half but as James Tomkins turned Julien Faubert’s cross past a stranded Jensen the ball was stabbed over the line by Carlton Cole, but the striker was clearly in an offside position.

Junior Stanislas almost recreated Fox’s stunning free kick just five minutes after that when his whipped free-kick clipped Jensen’s bar and bounced away.

The visitors’ best chance of an equaliser in the first half came ten minutes before the break when Cole, who hasn’t played since being injured against the Clarets back at the end of November, managed to slip past Leon Cort from a Scott Parker through ball.

But as the England man rounded out-rushing ‘keeper Jensen and applied the finish Cort recovered to clear off the line and keep his side ahead going into the break.

The three points are a huge boost to Burnley’s bid to stay in the Premier League and the fans greeted the final whistle with cheers of delight.

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