West Ham 5-3 Burnley match report: The Daily Mirror verdict

A turning point point for West Ham but another nail in the coffin for Burnley.

The Turf Moor players are loyal disciples of Owen Coyle’s commitment to attack away from home. But he is going to get them relegated unless he shuts up shop soon.

We’ve been here before. Last season Tony Mowbray refused to compromise his passing game with West Brom. They went down just as everyone expected and Burnley are headed in the same direction because their appalling away form puts too great a reliance on them to win in front of their own fans.

To be fair to the players, they are only following orders. The trouble is, those orders left them with far too much to do on Saturday.

Still, Robbie Blake refused to break ranks afterwards and defended his boss’s tactics. The striker said: “Although the results and the goals we are conceding are disappointing, the bigger picture is that we are sat in a position that few thought we would be in after 14 games.

“We have a very good manager who firmly believes that if we go forward we can create chances.

“As a group of players we only know one thing and that is to go and attack teams.”

The Clarets have now shipped two at Stoke, three at Chelsea, four at Liverpool, five at Spurs, three at Blackburn, three at Manchester City and five at Upton Park.

And yet, the curious thing about this eight-goal thriller was that, despite racing to a 5-0 lead, West Ham were not that great.

The goals Burnley conceded simply came from bad defending. On 18 minutes Jack Collison beat the offside trap to latch on to Scott Parker’s quickly-taken free-kick and slot home from 12 yards.

On 33 minutes Junior Stanislas made it 2-0 and then, just before the break, Carlton Cole smashed home a penalty after Blake had brought down Jonathan Spector.

Zavon Hines replaced Cole at half-time with the England striker off for scans on a knee injury. But the goals continued with Franco heading in Stanislas’s free-kick for 4-0.

Hammers sub Luis Jimenez made it 5-0 and that was the cue for the home side to take their foot off the gas. Their lethargy seemed to galvanise Burnley, however, and the Clarets pulled one back in the 68th minute through Steven Fletcher.

Six minutes later Fletcher made it 5-2 and a frisson of nervousness shot around the the home support as West Ham had already thrown away leads five times this season.

And when Chris Eagles hit the post with a 25-yard free-kick, Gianfranco Zola’s men were all over the place.

Late on skipper Steven Caldwell was red-carded for hauling down Hines and by the time Eagles had scored again, side-footing home Tyrone Mears’s cross, the time was up.

West Ham players and fans left Upton Park breathing a sigh of relief but midfielder Scott Parker remains upbeat after the club’s second win of the campaign. He said: At the moment we are a little bit nervy, you can see that at times in our play.

“Last week was the same against Hull. We were 2-0 up and let them back into the game and then they were 3-2 up within 20 minutes. So there is something wrong there.

“But we just need to be strong and concentrate on the positive things. We scored five and we won the game.”

West Ham: Green 7 ,Gabbidon 7,Spector 6 ,Ilunga 7,Da Costa 6,Parker 9 ,Kovac 8, Collison 8 (Faubert, 78 ), Stanislas 7, Cole 7 (Hines, 45, 7 ), Franco 7 (Jimenez, 59, 7)

Burnley: Jensen 4 , Mears 4, Jordan 4 (Nugent ,55, 5 ), Carlisle 5, Bikey 5, Caldwell 4 (sent off 90), Eagles 7, Alexander 5 (McDonald, 70, 5), Elliott 5, Blake 6 (Kalvenes, 55, 5), Steven Fletcher 7