Wolves cruise to 3-1 win at West Ham

LONDON (SE) - Wolverhampton manager Mick McCarthy insisted his players needed to keep their feet on the ground to secure Premier League survival – despite seeing his side romp to a 3-1 win over fellow strugglers West Ham at Upton Park.

Goals from Kevin Doyle, Ronald Zubar and Matt Jarvis moves McCarthy's in-form side seven points clear of the drop, but leaves West Ham just one place above the drop zone.

But despite his side hitting a purple patch at just the right time, McCarthy remained realistic.

McCarthy said: "We played well tonight but the pressure was on them at home, in a game they're expected to win, but we have not let them play and put in a terrific performance.

"It is a significant result because these are points that hopefully will keep us in the league.

"But I am going to be boring and professional and make sure we start looking to Everton on Saturday now.

"We won't be setting any points target – I just want more points than three other teams. That is the only aim."

Hammers boss Gianfranco Zola, seeking to avoid a fifth consecutive loss, welcomed back Scott Parker, Carlton Cole and Benni McCarthy after the trio missed the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal.

But in front of a nervy Upton Park crowd, it was the visitors who started brighter.

A Marcus Hahnemann clearance in the seventh minute made it into the path of Kevin Foley, who out-paced Matthew Upson only to see his lofted effort rattle Robert Green's crossbar.

And after a lacklustre opening 28 minutes, murmurings of quiet discontent from the home support turn quickly turned loud displeasure as disaster struck.

Under little pressure, centre-back James Tomkins' badly mis-struck back-pass was seized upon by the livewire Doyle, who sprinted clear before side-footing clinically past Green.

A Parker shot which struck the post and his follow-up shot from the rebound which Hahnemann expertly pushed to safety were all the Hammers had to show for a limp first 45 minutes.

As boos rang out at the half-time whistle, a second-half reaction seemed assured from Zola's side.

But a three-minute burst of the highest quality on the hour-mark turned the mood among the home fans from concerned to furious and the game into a procession for Wolves.

In the 58th minute, Zubar latched onto a fine David Jones pass in the right channel to drill powerfully past Green from 12 yards for his first Premier League goal.

Just three minutes later, Jones was again the provider as his weighted throughball found Jarvis twenty yards out, who powerfully struck home.

A late, neatly finished close-range lob from Guillermo Franco was barely celebrated, as Hammers fans – in stark contrast to their jubilant Wolves counterparts – contemplated life in the Championship next season, perhaps without their under-fire manager.

Zola said: "We just didn't play very well tonight, to be honest. In so many areas of the pitch they were better than us and that is why they won the game.

"When you are in this situation, the confidence of the team cannot be good. This is a vicious run, but we have to be strong and win back our confidence.

"I don't know what we need in terms of points – to be honest I am more concerned with our performance and what we need to improve.

"But I am still very confident we can stay up."