Walking back to my parent's house from the 'Hammers' pub in East Ham after this gut-wrenching defeat in the Carling Cup semi-final, it occured to me that this match almost summed up my life supporting West Ham United. In many ways it actually sums up my life full-stop - but I'm seeing someone about that and the psychiatrist has asked me not to talk about it.

From joy and expectation to abject misery and disappointment, all in the space of 45 minutes plus extra time. They say you can't script it but really, with West Ham United it has all been writ before and just needs dusting off every few months.

In the first-half, the Hammer's were simply irresistible, Carlton Cole's wonder goal put them 1-0 up on the night and 3-1 up on aggregate and any neutral watching this game would surely suggest that Birmingham were incapable of scoring three goals in three matches let alone 45 second-half minutes. Zavon Hines came close to opening the scoring with a good run, Cole shot over from close range when he, perhaps, should have done better and Ridgewell crucially cut-out a cross from the by-line before Carlton Cole's superb goal on 31 minutes. Cole won the ball off a couple of Birmingham defenders and curled a 35 yard shot into the top corner for a quality strike.

Birmingham were hanging on and Hines held his head in frustration as a ball that he and Johnson went for, came off of Johnson's knee and hit a post. Rob Green had punched out an effort from Matt Derbyshire and smartly held a Sebastian Larsson free-kick but really West Ham looked in complete control. A 1-0 half-time lead could quite easily have been two or three and the home fans could not have complained.

But Birmingham - shock! Horror! Who'da thought it? - changed things around in the second half and suddenly the Hammers went AWOL. Zigic came on to create something in the air and, suddenly West Ham lost all composure. Why? Do generations of Hammer's managers tell their players to just carry on regardless of what the opposition do? Would it not have been possible to try and counteract this dastardly attempt to try and alter things?

Whatever, suddenly the visitors looked vunerable and Gardner was unlucky with a 25 yard shot that struck a post and flew along the line without going in. Perhaps it was West Ham's night? But no, the usual curse manifested itself. Lee Bowyer, a player who was excellent for Charlton and Leeds but only fleetingly in form for West Ham during two spells with the club; a player most fans only think of only with disappointment particularly as he is famously a local lad and a West Ham fan, got on the end of a Larrson corner that the Eastenders failed to deal with - they had got into a mess from exactly the same situation minutes earlier, forcing Green to turn a Ridgwell header round the post - and scorched home an equaliser. How many goals has Bowyer scored this season?

Birmingham now attacked with purpose and Green superbly turned another shot round the post when clearly unsighted, and then saved his side again when he tipped over Jerome's header from yet another Larsson corner. But it was all in vain when Bowyer - yep, him again - crossed for Johnson to head in the aggregate equaliser and put Birmingham 2-1 up on the night. It was difficult to believe it was happening.

Green got down well to another Jerome shot in the box and then brilliantly fingertipped a Gardner drive onto the post just seconds from the end of normal time. But the Hammer's keeper's heroics only came back to bite when Gardner again got hold of a pass from a break that occured when referee Howard Webb missed a foul on a West Ham player, and shot past Green just minutes after the restart. It seemed the former England stopper had it covered and it didn't look pretty in slow motion, but I think the flight deceived Green and, in any case, he made enough good saves on the night to keep the Hammer's in the game and can't really be blamed for what had become a second-half blitz. The fact is if you put any player under constant pressure they will eventually make a mistake; you can't put Rob Green in a Turkey shoot and expect him to save them all.

Of course, West Ham tried to drag themselves back into the game and started to play the type of football that they had begun the game with but now, passes went astray, bounces went the other way and crosses unerringly found the heads of Birmingham players. The Blues started to run the clock down with corner posession and West Ham became frustrated and ran out of what ideas they had left. When the whistle went the Birmingham fans celebrated ecstatically, as well they might. I doubt few can honestly say they saw this at half-time.

For West Ham, it was another evening of disappointment and soul-searching. It may have been the Carling Cup but it was, nevertheless, another away defeat and another game where a really good initiative had been lost. Once again, as so often happens with West Ham, the opposing coach saw a weakness in the Hammer's set-up that the claret and blue couldn't deal with. That the strength of the opposition was to stick on a big bloke to win the ball up-front is depressing enough, but the Hammer's inability to deal with it was even worse. It simply can't be right to lose so many games away from home and the Hammer's inability to cope with corners while, ironically their own just seemed to be aimless punts, is more than frustrating.

A miserable, miserable evening that turns into another chapter in the recurring nightmare that is West Ham United. I have to admit though - this one hurts a lot.

Tweet

Follow ESPNsoccernet's Football Correspondents on Twitter and Facebook