For a rookie defence that had Jonathan Spector making his debut, it was a torrid baptism into the bigger time, while Nigel Reo-Coker’s bullish remarks about wanting to go all the way in the competition looked as empty as the tank.

To add to West Ham’s problems, the trouble that marred the night before the game evoked nauseating 1980s hooliganism and led to bloated police cells and a huge police presence at the game. It was an odious end to a thankfully short European adventure.

“I felt there were some green shoots tonight,” Pardew, the manager, said, brave face to the fore. “Anybody who caught the mood of the game knows that if we got the first goal then it was game on.”

Pardew also tried not to get dragged into discussing the violence. “I don’t want to make judgments, but our own experience was that the Sicilian people have been brilliant to us,” he said.

Both sides were culpable, the Inter-City Firm and the locals with their “Inferno” T-shirts, and two days here proved that if Sicilians are stereotyped by their Mafia associations, the English are still widely regarded as shaven-headed football hooligans.

Other arresting concerns for Pardew centred on getting a first win since the first day of the season and coming close to last year’s overachieving model. In a country devoid of cliches about horses’ heads, West Ham have instead made a pig’s ear of the early going, but Pardew was brave enough to go out with guns blazing, playing Carlos Tévez on the left of a tri-pronged attack, with Javier Mascherano anchoring the midfield.

Tévez remains the superstar-elect of this side. With the distinctive double-barrelled chest that lends credence to the “New Maradona” tag, he turned outside his man in the first five minutes, accelerated and forced Alberto Fontana to tip over a crisp strike. Thereafter he was starved of meaningful support and toiled away in vain. “I thought he showed that when he is in possession he is a top player,” Pardew said. The possession was minimal.

As time wore on, Mark Bresciano began to look as pretty in pink as anyone with the head of a nightclub bouncer can, but West Ham almost drew level on aggregate when Carlton Cole twice forced Fontana into superb parries. However, Cole was soon made to pay when Palermo shifted a free kick to Fabio Simplicio, who overcame a poor first touch to toe-poke a 20-yard daisycutter into the corner.

West Ham almost got a foothold when Cole nodded Spector’s raking cross against a post, but he injured himself in doing so and limped off. The surrender ultimately proved just as limp. First Danny Gabbidon lost possession to Di Michele and Simplicio lobbed the killer goal over Roy Carroll with half an hour left. The embarrassing one came soon after, when David Di Michele took advantage of a sleeping linesman to slip a third under Carroll, who was sufficiently incensed to harangue the official. Discredit where discredit’s due, it was a sorry trip into the unknown for fans and players alike.

PALERMO (4-3-2-1): A Fontana — M Cassani, C Zaccardo, A Barzagli, M Pisano — A Diana (sub: P Dellafiore, 89min), E Corini (sub: R Guana, 77), F Simplicio — D Di Michele (sub: F Brienza, 85), M Bresciano — A Caracciolo. Substitutes not used: F Agliardi, G Tedesco, F Parravicini, C Capuano. Booked: Barzagli, Corini, Zaccardo, Pisano.

WEST HAM UNITED (4-3-3): R Carroll — J Spector, J Collins, D Gabbidon, P Konchesky — L Bowyer, J Mascherano (sub: Y Benayoun, 68), N Reo-Coker — M Harewood (sub: E Sheringham, 68), C Cole (sub: R Zamora, 59), C Tévez. Substitutes not used: R Green, M Etherington, H Mullins, H Ephraim. Booked: Cole, Carroll.

Referee: G Kasnaferis (Greece).

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