Apart from the superb entertainment; the good thing about this match was it proved a number of points and highlighted others. So where do we start?

Well, most importantly, the three points were vital to West Ham and any attempt to underplay the significance of the result cannot be condoned. Most of us would have taken a 1-0 win at the start of play, bearing in mind the injuries to Upson and Behrami, and a 2-0 would have been accepted by all. The 5-3 scoreline though, just served to show that the Hammers do have enough firepower to worry the teams around them but, conversely, we will continue to suffer from time to time until they address the problems in defence.

Owen Coyle, the Burnley boss, was keen to stress after the match that he thought Burnley may not have lost had they got the first strike in. I imagine he mentioned this because of the excellent goal-line clearance from Scott Parker from Carlisle's header which should have put the visitors ahead in the first ten minutes. As it was, the Hammers came close when the excellent Franco saw his header come off the top of the bar. On 18 minutes though, it was the Hammers who went ahead, quite superbly Scott Parker quickly took a free kick that took the Burnley defence napping allowing Collison - at least a yard onside - to beat the trap while the visitors defence stood arms aloft.

That shook Burnley who showed their inexperience at the back when Stanislas scored after half an hour, even though his initial shot from a Franco pass was blocked, the West Ham youngster had time to recover the ball, run into the keeper and slip it past from an acute angle into the net. Just before the break it was three, as Spector was brought down by Blake after the defender latched onto a Kovac pass. A limping Carlton Cole scored from the spot but failed to come out for the second half being replaced by Hines.

It seemed to make little difference to the home side's attacking intentions though, Franco getting in first to a Stanislas cross to poke the ball home even though he seemed to mis-hit, to crown an excellent display of forward play. The game was still only just over 50 minutes old and, when the Hammers hit the fifth in the 64th minute when Jimenez was hauled down and the player got up to hit home form the spot himself, there was a real feeling that six or seven were on the card.

To be fair to Burnley though, they never gave up and when Fletcher hit home to pull back what we thought was a consolation, it seemed to take the steam out of a West Ham defence that looked ragged throughout. With pride at stake perhaps, the Claret and Blue visitors pushed forward and again embarrased the home defence with Fletcher doubling his tally.

When Caldwell was sent off on 90 minutes after he had hauled down Zavon Hines who had beaten him for pure pace, it still looked as if the Hammers might make it a round half-dozen with only ten men but, as we have witnessed recently, the number of men on the field seems to make little difference to Zola's men and they conceded a third in stoppage time when Chris Eagles scored, consolation for having hit the post earlier.

Despite reports that the players were booed off the pitch - who writes these pile of pony newspaper reports? Are they actually there? - most fans were taken with the superb entertainment and the three points but disappointed with the Burnley comeback and the confirmation that the Hammers might find teams harder to score against but much harder to defend against too. Next week's match against Manchester United is likely to be a case in point.

As I said intitially, this isn't anything we haven't known since August. We need a right-back and someone to marshall the defence - Upson, for some reason, isn't ideal Captain material even when fit - while Illunga looks off the pace at left-back. We will certainly not be able to cover all the positions in January but I expect the manangement team will bring in at least two players and, if the mooted takeover actually comes off - it's likely no-one will move out either.

Ultimately though, this match proved the Hammers still have an extra bit of experience that should, hopefully, see them well in the long winter run and, at least, if nothing else, you can't say you're not getting your money's worth!