WEST HAM’S quest for a European place was boosted by debut goals for two graduates of their famous academy, Junior Stanislas and James Tomkins. How Ricky Sbragia must wish he had the same sort of talent to come through and challenge a jaded group of players, who slumped to their third successive defeat and are now very much a part of the northeastern malaise at the bottom of the table.

Sbragia knows his team are playing as poorly as at any point this season, though he resisted the chance to shake things up too much. He did bring back Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon, while Kieran Richardson also returned after suspension. For West Ham, David Di Michele partnered Diego Tristan up front in the absence of Carlton Cole.

Sunderland were the better team for most of the first half, with Grant Leadbitter particularly dangerous when bearing in on goal, but once they conceded the first goal they never posed a threat. From a Sunderland corner, Robert Green collected easily and bowled the ball out to Luis Boa Morte. The ball was moved quickly through Tristan and Di Michele to Boa Morte again on the edge of the Sunderland area and he showed an unexpected degree of poise to look up and pick out Stanislas, inset, on the far post. The 19-year-old had a simple tap-in to score on his full debut. That goal, two minutes before the break, deflated Sunderland and they were two behind soon after the restart.

Gordon had to push a fierce shot from Tristan out for a corner, which Mark Noble sent on to the head of James Tomkins near the edge of the area. It needed a very good header from there to threaten Gordon, and that is exactly what the 20-year-old centre-half delivered under pressure from Anton Ferdinand.

Gordon, who had left his near post unmarked, got a hand to the ball but it trickled past his grasp low into the corner of the net. It was all going West Ham’s way, though there was a setback when Jonathan Spector collided heavily with Tal Ben Haim in an aerial challenge and, after receiving lengthy treatment, he was carried off on a stretcher. Spector was taken to hospital with concussion and was kept in overnight as a precaution.

“We can’t depend on others,” Sbragia said afterwards. “We need a win badly. We have Manchester United at home next week which will be very difficult but you never know. We need a better performance than today.”

If predicting in football were easy, everyone would win the pools.

Star man: Luis Boa Morte (West Ham)

Yellow cards: West Ham: Ilunga Sunderland: Whitehead

Referee: M Jones

Attendance: 34,671

WEST HAM: Green 7, Spector 7 (Collins 73min), Tomkins 7, Upson 7, Ilunga 6, Neill 6, Noble 6, Stanislas 7 (Lopez 90min), Boa Morte 7, Di Michele 6 (Dyer 81min), Tristan 6

SUNDERLAND: Gordon 5, Bardsley 5, Ferdinand 5, Collins 5, Ben Haim 5, Malbranque 5 (Edwards 75min), Leadbitter 6, Whitehead 5, Murphy 4 (Jones, 54min), Richardson 5, Cisse 4