David Nugent showed exactly why Brian Laws was keen to extend his loan deal as his goal separates the two sides at half time.

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 Danny Fox’s 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.

Burnley had the better of a quiet opening period but since Nugent broke the dead-lock it has been all West Ham.

The visitors’ best chance of an equaliser came ten minutes before the break when Carlton Cole managed to slip Leon Cort from a Scott Parker through ball.

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

Cole, who hasn’t featured for West Ham since colliding with Brian Jensen the last time the clubs met back in November, has looked threatening whenever on the ball and has caused some real problems for Cort and Carlisle.

West Ham have been the more threatening since going behind and enjoyed a good spell ten minutes after the goal in which they could have got themselves level.

Former Blackburn striker Benni McCarthy could have punished his old rivals when he had time to take the ball down in the box but his effort was poor and well wide.

The South African was involved again a minute later but his cross was scrambled away by Clarke Carlisle.

And the visitors came knocking again just 30 seconds after when Jack Collison broke down the left and cut inside, but his shot was deflected by Tyrone Mears before being cleared by the covering Fox.