Team news

Scott Parker will return for West Ham in their Barclays Premier League match against Aston Villa after serving a one-game ban.

Hammers captain Parker will take his place in central midfield but fellow anchorman Radoslav Kovac is suspended as a result of his sending-off in the 2-2 draw at Sunderland on Saturday.

Manager Gianfranco Zola has no fresh injury setbacks but Kieron Dyer is still out with a hamstring problem while Dean Ashton (ankle) and Luis Boa Morte (knee) are long-term absentees.

Zola's men have not won in the league since the opening day of the season, when they defeated promoted side Wolves, and could slip to the foot of the table beneath Portsmouth with a heavy defeat to Villa at Upton Park.

Assistant boss Steve Clarke, though, believes his team will get their campaign back on track this week, with another home match - against Everton - in the offing this weekend.

"We are going to give the fans our first home win," the former Scotland and Chelsea full-back vowed.

"We are gong to give them the win they want. They have a good memory of the finish of the Arsenal game where we finished strongly (to draw 2-2 from 2-0 down).

"They are going to take us into those two matches and they are going to push us to the win that we need.

"It's important we get a win sooner rather than later so tomorrow night is a terrific chance for us." Aston Villa have major injury doubts over midfielders Stiliyan Petrov and James Milner.

Petrov suffered a shin injury and Milner picked up a calf problem during Saturday's 1-1 draw against Everton at Goodison Park.

Manager Martin O'Neill rates both as doubtful while midfielder Craig Gardner is unavailable due to a groin injury. Nigel Reo-Coker and Fabian Delph could deputise if Petrov and Milner miss out.

O'Neill will definitely have to make a change in defence as Carlos Cuellar is suspended after being sent off at Everton. Luke Young and Habib Beye are vying to step in at right-back.

O'Neill has warned his players to beware a wounded West Ham.

Villa travel to East London knowing that a win would move them up to fourth in the table. They are facing a West Ham side whose solitary Premier League victory came almost three months ago.

They have lost five of their subsequent nine games to lie second from bottom - and threw away a two goal lead to draw 2-2 at Sunderland last weekend. But O'Neill has seen more than enough of Zola's side this season to recognise they will be a real threat to his team.

He watched them numerous times when he made his move to sign central defender James Collins, who will return to Upton Park at the heart of the Villa backline.

O'Neil said: "I would think they should have more points on the board but I thought their fight-back against Arsenal was fantastic.

West Ham 2-1 Aston Villa

Last modified 23:15 04/11/09

Never let it be said that the Hammers are not up for a fight.

They seem destined for a season-long battle against relegation and were handicapped in the first half with injuries to left-back Herita Ilunga and leading scorer Carlton Cole, leaving the striker doubtful for England's game against Brazil on November 14.

After taking a shock first-half lead the Hammers were forced to rely on a penalty save from keeper Robert Green after a spot-kick was wrongly awarded against them.

Even after that the culprit from nine yards, Ashley Young, somehow managed to fluke an outrageous equaliser to take the wind out of West Ham's sails.

And yet still Gianfranco Zola's side refused to give up. Indeed it was Cole's replacement, Zavon Hines, who managed the smash the goal - in the last minute of injury time - that could well prove the turning point for the club's season.

Because if West Ham play like this, they will not go down. No chance.

Even without leading scorer Cole, ten-man Aston Villa had no answer to the ferocity of West Ham's attacks, the hunger and desire of their players and their willingness to keep scrapping, right up until the very last whistle.

Speaking after the win that leaves them 16th, Zola said: "It was unbelievable.

"The way we started the game was absolutely perfect. We were playing the right way and we were confident.

"Then we lost Herita and Carlton and, as you can imagine considering the situation, the atmosphere went flat. But the second half was a different story, we stuck together and got the reward.

"This could well be the turning point. We gave a demonstration of our desire, our belief, and that’s what we wanted because everything else was there.

"The difference was that we believed. We tried until the end and we got our reward.

"As for Zavon I would have been very delighted with a finish like that, it was an incredible goal, he kept his composure. The boy deserves the spotlight."

This  was a compelling contest from start to finish. Zola's men - set out in an attacking 4-3-1-2 formation - went toe to toe with their visitors, despite in-form Villa looking for the win that would take them into the top four.

West Ham's form by contrast was poor. They had not earned three points since their opening game of the season.

But Jack Collison and Mark Noble surged into the Villa box to cause problems in the first minute, only just failing to get their shots away.

Cole's ambitious volley from Green's long clearance flew wide of the Villa goal just a minute later and it was clear that the home side were bang up for having a go.

But they were then hit by that injury to Ilunga, the Congo defender tweaking a hamstring as he tried to catch a pass from striker Guillermo Franco.

Jonathan Spector, dropped from the side that blew a two-goal lead at Sunderland last Saturday, was brought on in his place.

Worse, still was to follow, though, as Cole pulled up on the half hour as he tried to chase a long pass from Julian Faubert.

The England striker, who has scored six times this season, immediately signalled to the bench and was replaced by Hines.

Still, however, West Ham heads would not go down. And, to their immense credit, they were able to win a penalty on the stroke of half time.

Franco split the Villa defence with a superb pass and when Habib Beye challenged Hines in the box, referee Steve Bennett pointed to the spot. Noble speared the resulting spot-kick into the roof of the net to send his side in a goal up at half time.

The second period began, however, in explosive fashion as Bennett inexplicably handed a Villa penalty on 48 minutes.

The Kent official claimed, ludicrously, that rookie centre-back Manuel Da Costa had kicked Hammers old boy James Collins in the back as he jumped to head the ball clear.

Zola, his players and the home side's fans were incredulous. But justice was done when Green dived low to his left to palm away Young's awful spot kick in front of Fabio Capello in the stands.

So cruel it was for the home side then that Young would atone for that miss just minutes later with his bizarre strike.

Zola added: "I saw only one penalty! The second one I didn’t understand, I watched the video and I still can’t understand it.

"No-one could believe their eyes, it was a great challenge. Da Costa jumped very high and unfortunately found James Collins on his way down but come on! It was a bit much.

"But Robert made a couple of saves that were saves from the number one national team player, I was delighted for him. Ashley Young hit it in the top corner, it was difficult. If he did mean that I’m going to shake his hand because it was a great goal."

Even then, however, West Ham refused to give up. Beye was sent off five minutes from time for his foul - a second yellow - on Spector who had been rampaging forward.

And in the last minute of the four in second-half injury time Hines struck, collecting Scott Parker's pass, jinking past three defenders and somehow beating Friedel with a snapshot.

Upton Park went ballistic. Zola punched the air in jubilation just as Villa boss Martin O'Neill turned away in disgust.

O'Neill said later: "I don’t think we should have been beaten. I think we did enough to get something out of the game.

"We were in the ascendency for much of the game and looked a real threat. I thought we’d go on to win it so I'm really disappointed."

But Zola remained defiant, insisting there would be more of the same heart from his team when they host Everton here on Sunday.

He said: "I think it’s normal that we are criticised, people see us not doing very well when we were expected to be in a different position at this stage.

"But we accept the criticism and defend ourselves. There’s a long way to go and the team is alive and ready to fight. This match was a good display of that. But it was just one step, on Sunday we need another big performance."