Hammers clinch place in Cardiff final
Ipswich 0 West Ham 2 (West Ham win 4-2 on aggregate)
West Ham manager Alan Pardew can now make amends for last year’s insipid play-off final performance after inflicting more end-of-season heartbreak on Ipswich.
Striker Bobby Zamora, covering for the injured Teddy Sheringham, was the hero with a second-half double to fire the Hammers into a Coca-Cola Championship clash with Derby or Preston at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on May 30.
Twelve months ago, after sending boss Joe Royle’s side packing at the semi-final stage, West Ham reserved arguably their worst display of the season for the final as they allowed Crystal Palace to take a coveted £20m (€29m) place in the Premiership.
After despatching Ipswich again, Pardew will demand there is no repeat.
He has a score to settle with the play-off system after being a three-time loser in them in recent seasons, twice with Reading in 2001 and 2003, and again a year ago with West Ham.
And Ipswich must loathe the play-offs, this was their fifth failure in nine years and sixth overall in seven attempts.
For an hour there was nothing to choose between the sides in a game which was unrelenting in pace, albeit with precious little skill.
Buoyed by a sell-out 30,000 crowd as the two sides made their way onto the pitch, it was Ipswich who looked to build on their rousing finale at Upton Park on Saturday.
After pegging West Ham back to 2-2 following a dreadful initial 13 minutes in which they fell two goals adrift, the impetus was with Royle’s boys and there was no repeat of the lethargy they had shown in the east end of London.
The early skirmishes, as the two sides tested one another out, was punctuated by the first clear-cut opportunity of the game in the 12th minute.
From a Fabian Wilnis throw into the Hammers penalty area, Jason de Vos flicked the ball into the path of Darren Currie – starting after his substitute appearance at the weekend – to strike a sidefoot volley from 12 yards into the arms of a grateful Jimmy Walker.
That was the visitors’ cue to counter, via winger Matthew Etherington who showed a turn of speed which took him away from Richard Naylor before firing in a low drive Kelvin Davis at first only parried before collecting at the second attempt.
After Matt Richards and Jason de Vos comspired to make a hash of a low Etherington ball into the area that neither Marlon Harewood nor Zamora could capitalise on, he again came in for rough punishment as on Saturday.
Ipswich eventually resorted to rough-house tactics in that game to slow down Etherington, so it was no surprise he was the victim of the game’s first crude challenge in the 25th minute, with Ian Westlake deserving his booking.
But by that stage West Ham had drawn the early sting from Ipswich, yet time and again they failed to take advantage of the extra man they often seemed to possess on the counter.
It took a mistake from Walker to rouse Town in the closing stages of the half, with the goalkeeper deceived by the swerve on a 30-yard Currie strike, but fortunate his left hand deflected it over the bar.
After Davis was almost knocked out on the stroke of half time, taking a ferocious, acutely-angled drive from Tomas Repka full in the face, the Town keeper showed he had fully recovered after the restart.
Twice inside the opening 10 minutes of the second half the goalkeeper was smartly down to his left to make clutch saves from captain Nigel Reo-Coker and Zamora.
Then came the breakthrough on the hour as West Ham opened up Ipswich with the kind of swift incisiveness that resulted in their two-goal lead on Saturday, and with Zamora again on the end of the move after scoring at the weekend.
Carl Fletcher was the instigator, playing a low ball into the path of Harewood who turned onto the pass and away from Richards before splitting the six-yard box with a delivery to the far post where Zamora was able to sidefoot home for his 11th of the season.
In the 72nd minute came a goal of exquisite quality, all from a cleared Ipswich free-kick which culminated in Harewood flighting in a deep ball from the right wing that split covering defenders Wilnis and captain Jim Magilton.
Zamora then unleashed a sublime left-foot volley from 15 yards to fire past a stranded Davis.
