A poll on the WestHamOnline site surprisingly revealed that an overwhelming majority of fans thought West Ham would lose this game. The Hammer's recent poor form may have something to do with it; then again City's abysmal away record suggested the run must end somewhere – and that somewhere was more than likely to be Upton Park (we have a record of this type of thing!).

More likely though was the fact that the Hammers faced that hardiest of foe; the sold striker coming back to wreak havoc on his old club and, being as Bellamy had an excellent record against his former clubs - and there are now a helluva lot of 'em - the fans seemed to fear the worst.

As it was Jack Collison's superbly taken chance, after the ball had come out to him quickly when Shay Given pushed out Savio's swerving shot on 71 minutes, was enough to take all three points and move the Hammers up to 7th in the table.

In-between that, however, City missed a number of glorious chances to take the lead including a Robinho miss from two yards that made you realise just how different the world looks now we can see players like this every week instead of every four years. I remember when the Brazilians seemed like they came from another planet rather than another continent, but it's all a lot different when you see the ten stepovers followed by a shot your Granny would be better taking.

Craig Bellamy received the obvious barracking but really did little cause any concern to the home fans, playing deeper and wider than he used to do at Upton Park. Perhaps the move wasn't such a good idea after all, eh Craig? His team mates - particularly Caicedo - missed a number of good opportunities and the home crowd probably felt most concerned when a late poor tackle by Scott Parker enabled City to tee up a free kick in injury time. Having conceded two such goals in the last two games it looked good odds that Elano would equalise, but Neill just got his head to the ball to divert it onto the crossbar to deny City at the last.

Manager Zola was full of praise for the Jack Collison after the game - rightly so as the Welsh youngster had two good chances before his well taken goal and he looks to have cemented his place in the Hammers midfield particularly as Behrami was carried off with what looked like a bad knee injury.

This was a decisive win for West Ham and sets them up nicely with a number of winnable games coming up in March and April.