Noble and Cole give ten-man Hammers first-leg advantage

HEADING in to the match rumours were abound that Avram Grant would be sacked at a board meeting to be held tomorrow. But if he is to be pushed out, he would have gone out with a bang after ten-man West Ham took a significant step towards a place at Wembley and the Carling Cup final with a first-leg victory over Birmingham.

Grant at times seemed unaware of any plots against him on the touchline with several vocal outbursts, although a familiar deadpan expression greeted the Hammers' second and winning goal.

Mark Noble's thunderous volley on 12 minutes was cancelled out by Liam Ridgewell's header after the break. And the task looked an impossible one when Victor Obinna was sent off for a daft kick aimed at Sebastian Larsson. But Carlton Cole came off the bench and, with the help of an error from Ben Foster, gave West Ham a crucial lead heading into the second leg.

Perhaps the players were invigorated by talk of their manager's precarious position, as they flew out of the traps at Upton Park, going for the jugular from the off and maintaining an impressive pace and verve about their play throughout the first half.

First, skipper Matthew Upson - in an unfamiliar left-back role, with Winston Reid partnering James Tomkins in the centre – saw a snapshot after a rare forage forward touched wide by Foster.

With the hosts eager to find an early breakthrough, Noble took matters into his own hands. The midfielder cleverly dummied a challenge in the centre circle and marauded forward, bursting into the box and standing a cross up to the back post. Obinna's header was cleared off the line by Scott Dann, but Jonathan Spector returned the ball with interest, firing a cross-shot to the opposite side of the box, where Noble had remained, composing himself and crashing a first-time volley inside Foster's near post.

Still the pressure continued unabated, Spector invited to shoot from range and forcing Foster into a smart diving stop.

From the resulting corner Tomkins rose highest to head towards goal but again Foster was there to palm the ball over the bar.

On 30 minutes Freddie Sears led a rapid counter-attack that ended with the ball at Obinna's feet and the striker thumping a rare shot on target that Foster was again equal to.

The Hammers graduate then saw his own effort after a neat chest-down fly narrowly wide of the target.

The half-time whistle arrived with the home side well and truly in the ascendancy, and an injury to Blues centre-half Dann merely compounded a dreadful 45 minutes.

However, as is so often in football, the second half could not have been more different to the first, although West Ham were the architects of their own downfall.

With just five minutes of the second period played, it was clear that Birmingham had received something of a verbal rocket from manager Alex McLeish during the interval, as they pressed forward and forced a corner.

The first was dealt with in unorthodox fashion by Sears on the goal-line, Cameron Jerome's header being diverted away from danger by the winger's knee.

The Hammers defence did not learn its lesson though, as Ridgewell's run caught Reid on his heels and Sebastian Larsson's corner found the full-back's head, with the ball sailing past Robert Green and into the top corner.

It soon got worse for West Ham thanks to a moment of madness from Obinna, which meant they had to play out the remaining half an hour with ten men.

Larsson did not appear to have done anything to warrant a reaction from the forward, but a reaction he got as the pair prepared to challenge for an Upson throw-in, with Obinna aiming a kick behind him that connected with the midfielder's groin.

The linesman spotted the incident and referee Phil Dowd duly sent him off, leaving West Ham in more trouble and Grant staring into the abyss.

But there was to be another twist in the tale, and its arrival owed much to Grant's substitutions, with Cole and Zavon Hines coming on for Freddie Piquionne and Sears.

The injection of Hines' pace rattled Birmingham's backline, as he forced a corner. But it was Cole's contribution just three minutes after his introduction that was to prove decisive.

Parker threaded a neat ball to the right for Spector, who had switched to the wing after Obinna's dismissal, and the American pulled the ball across the 18-yard box where Cole had found space. His first-time shot was tamely struck but it seemed to wrong-foot Foster, the keeper getting his limbs in a tangle and succeeding only in slowing the ball's progress as it trickled over the line.

Substitute David Murphy did see a header soar just wide of the goal as Birmingham pushed for the leveller, but West Ham held on for a vital advantage that they will take to St Andrews in two weeks' time. Whether or not Grant will be there with them is a matter for debate, but if tonight was to be his final act as manager, then he will have gone out on a high.