A desperately needed home win came late, but was deserved none the less, when a Carlton Cole shot deflected off of Diego Tristan to deceive the Stoke keeper. The MOTD highlights showed Cole shaking his head and beaming wildly and he must have been thinking what the rest of us were; when your luck is down you get nothing - see Aston Villa - when it's up you it a deflected winner with five minutes to go. Crazy game!

In fact, West Ham showed a good deal of fortitude in this match. They went behind early with just five minutes on the clock when Faye lost his marker James Collins and headed in from a Fuller corner.

The Hammers could have hit back immediately but Cole squandered a good chance and that seemed to set the pattern for the rest of the half as the Irons huffed and puffed but wasted further chances that the suspended Bellamy must have wished he was on the end of.

However, the game turned on a Hammers goal and the resulting bizarre moments six minutes into the second half. Carlton Cole initially seemed to have lost Parker's through ball but he turned superbly leaving Stoke skipper Andy Griffin in an untidy heap as the Hammer's striker curled the ball into the far corner. As if that wasn't bad enough for Stoke, an argument then broke out between the Potter's defenders and Ricardo Fuller who remonstrated with his Captain before slapping him round the face. The referee had no choice but to send Fuller off, leaving the striker to march off while his Captain appeared to be gesticulating that he should go and he was glad to see the back of him. Both strange and highly amusing although it must be said that Griffin appeared not to be fit and it may have been his lack of mobility that so upset Fuller.

Whatever the reasons, the game now swung the Hammers way as attacks were mounted with no discernible result as, as so often lately, the team seemed unable or reluctant to go wide. Even so, Boa Morte was unlucky to see his trickling half-hit shot cleared off the line before the last ten minutes saw something of a Hammers siege that looked likely to produce nothing until the late deflection.

The result was all today and, incredibly, moves West Ham up to 10th. This is a strange, strange season!