Nowhere does the adage that it is harder to play against 10 men apply more than at West Ham United. This was the third successive time that Sam Allardyce's side have had a player sent off and their reward from those games has been seven points that on Tuesday night took them to the top of the Championship. After the dismissals of Kevin Nolan against Millwall and Matthew Taylor against Southampton, Allardyce had threatened retribution to any of his players shown a red card, if only because "my heart cannot stand it".
Robert Green's sending-off, when the goalkeeper dashed out of his area to scythe down Roman Bednar, did not rouse Allardyce to fury, if only because his side continued to perform in style, scoring twice more. Bloomfield Road has seldom held up West Ham for long. In 51 years they have lost only one league game here and that was in 1966, a year remembered by several members of that West Ham side for other reasons. "To have won 4-1 away from home with 10 men is an outstanding achievement," Allardyce said. "To have won like this with 11 would have been something."
West Ham, like Blackpool, had no reserve keeper and instead the slight, unlikely figure of Henri Lansbury picked up the gloves. Stand-in goalkeepers risk either embarrassment or headlines proclaiming them a temporary hero. In the event, Lansbury got neither, not least because Blackpool had been so abject that Ian Holloway had used up his three substitutes by the start of the second half and Bednar was so injured he could barely continue. One shot from the tirelessly inventive Kevin Phillips that struck the post apart, Lansbury was untroubled.
Gary O'Neil followed up James Tomkins's blocked shot for the third and then, in the final flurry of action, Ricardo Vaz Tê's drive was deflected past Matthew Gilks to confirm West Ham's victory, only their second away since the end of November. "How shit must you be, we're winning away," chanted those who had made the journey from Essex and east London.
After a defeat that led Blackpool to slide out of the play-off places, it was an assessment with which Holloway agreed. "There was one team that had its mind on the job and it wasn't mine," said the Blackpool manager. " They beat us hollow."
The opening goal had not just been coming, it had been advertised. Jack Collison had tormented the Blackpool back four but it was his fellow midfielder, Mark Noble, whose free-kick was powered into the net by Tomkins's head. Collison's contribution to another West Ham goal was not long in coming as Nicky Maynard turned his low cross home to score on his first start since joining from Bristol City.
Blackpool were a shambles and 10 minutes from the interval, Holloway brought on Kevin Phillips and precisely 10 minutes later, he was rewarded with a goal his side scarcely merited. Alex Baptiste's cross was unthreatening but over a long career Phillips has perfected the art of timing a run and he headed it smartly home.