West Ham 2-1 Birmingham

By Jonathan Stevenson at Upton Park

West Ham striker Carlton Cole stepped off the bench to earn the 10-man Hammers a potentially crucial first-leg advantage in their Carling Cup semi-final against Birmingham at Upton Park.

After the hosts had been pegged back to 1-1 and seen Victor Obinna sent off for a crazy kick out at Sebastian Larsson, Cole bagged the winner with only 10 minutes left - and it was a personal nightmare for Blues keeper Ben Foster, who let the striker's soft shot roll under his hand and trickle over the line.

That the east Londoners won - and did so despite playing for over half an hour with fewer men - might just keep manager Avram Grant in a job, despite reports that the Israeli is about to be sacked by the Premier League's bottom club.

Grant will be desperate to finish the job of getting West Ham to their first Wembley cup final in 30 years when they meet Birmingham in the second leg at St Andrew's on 26 January; although arguably of more pressing concern is whether he will still be at the helm for Saturday's Premier League encounter with Arsenal.

606: DEBATE Was Foster to blame for the second goal?

The atmosphere at Upton Park before kick-off reflected the palpable tension surrounding the club right now, with nerves as big a factor as excitement ahead of the Hammers' first League Cup semi-final for more than 20 years.

Grant's future has been the subject of rumour after rumour for much of the season and last week's horrific 5-0 thumping at Newcastle was the catalyst for another round of fevered speculation.

Former Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill and ex-Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce have been strongly linked with the Hammers hot seat, with the West Ham board reportedly due to meet on Wednesday to discuss Grant's future once more, perhaps annoyed almost as much by the Israeli's public rebuking of managing director Karren Brady for discussing transfer policy in her newspaper column as by results.

Grant may have considered that only a performance of the very highest quality could keep him in a job - and the way his players started the game gave the 55-year-old shelter from the storm that was brewing.

The hosts flew out of the traps and with Scott Parker and Mark Noble working beautifully together in tandem in the centre of their midfield they began to exert serious pressure on Foster's goal.

Freddie Sears volleyed wide after a corner was half-punched clear by Foster before a Larsson clearance hit Matthew Upson - playing at left-back - and forced Foster into a fine reaction save at his near post.

The noise from the crowd grew as the stature of their team did and soon after, when the east Londoners took the lead, they nearly took the roof off.

A Noble ball in from the right was not cleared, Jonathan Spector's volley flew across goal from the left and fell beautifully for Noble to thump a volley in at Foster's near post from a seemingly impossible angle.

Foster had been left unsighted by Scott Dann's positioning at his post but the goalkeeper was about to prove his worth to Birmingham by keeping them in the game with a series of stunning saves as West Ham produced wave after wave of attack in their bid to find a crucial second goal.

Ridgewell brought Birmingham back into the match

Foster did superbly to parry away Spector's stinging 25-yard drive before showing wonderful reflexes to tip over a James Tomkins header.

Just after the half-hour mark the visiting keeper did even better to get down to his left and keep out Obinna's fiercely struck right-foot shot as Birmingham's defence continued to look suspect in front of him.

Despite enjoying more than their fair share of possession the visitors did not look like creating anything, with their lack of a killer ball painfully obvious as they harmlessly knocked the ball around outside the home side's box without ever looking like they would hurt them.

But Birmingham were clearly stung by some harsh words from manager Alex McLeish at the break and within 15 minutes of the restart the game had an entirely different complexion.

After Craig Gardner dragged a free-kick wide and Cameron Jerome's header was cleared off the line by Sears, the Blues got the goal their improvement warranted as Ridgewell beat Winston Reid to a corner and thumped in a header to send the travelling fans wild.

When Obinna was sent off shortly afterwards for a ridiculous kick on Larsson it seemed as though West Ham's hopes of reaching Wembley, and in turn Grant's of keeping his job, lay in serious jeopardy.

But they survived some real pressure as David Murphy flashed a header inches wide of Rob Green's right-hand post and then struck the killer blow on the night - and, they hope, the tie - after introducing the fresh legs of Cole and Zavon Hines.

It was a lovely build-up that created the chance as Parker slid Spector in down the right and he crossed to where Cole wanted the ball playing, about 15 yards out.

Cole would have been disappointed not to get a proper contact but it proved enough as a wrong-footed Foster made a horrible mess of saving it.

That was harsh on the former Manchester United keeper after a performance that kept his team in the tie at times. However, Grant, so often starved of luck himself, will feel both he and his side were worthy of the good fortune. Only time will tell whether it will be enough.

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