By Ryan Ghee
January 15 2006

Aston Villa fell to their first defeat in six games as Alan Pardew's West Ham came from behind to earn all three points at Villa Park. Lee Hendrie, an early substitute for the injured Eirik Bakke, opened the scoring after 27 minutes but the Hammers hit back through Bobby Zamora and Marlon Harewood to end a run of three straight defeats.

It was the visitors who created the first chance of the match when, after only two minutes of play, Matthew Etherington poked the ball into Thomas Sorensen's arms from only six yards out.

Despite the early scare, Villa kept their composure and could have opened the scoring just minutes later as Milan Baros cut in from the right touchline only to scuff his left-foot shot at the untroubled Roy Carroll.

With 27 minutes on the clock, following good work down Villa's left-hand side, Lee Hendrie opened the scoring with a neat near-post header.

James Milner and the returning Jlloyd Samuel linked up well on the flank and the latter provided a perfect cross which Hendrie glanced in past the helpless West Ham goalkeeper.

Just minutes before half-time, the home side very nearly doubled their advantage. Mark Delaney set out on an amazing 70-yard run and when he finally delivered the ball into the box, the lunging Milan Baros came inches away from adding a killer blow.

The start of the second half seemed to bring about a huge change in the match as the visitors piled on the pressure from the off and Villa started to look vulnerable at the back for the first time in the match.

Just six minutes into the half, the Hammers' pressure paid dividents as Bobby Zamora headed past the misplaced Thomas Sorensen following a Paul Konchesky free-kick.

After the equaliser, the match started to open up as Lee Hendrie's looping header forced an acrobatic save from Carroll and Newton fired a shot straight at Sorensen at the other end.

With West Ham again starting to put their hosts under an intense spell of pressure, Mark Delaney blocked Mullins' goal-bound effort with his arm and Phil Dowd pointed to the spot.

Marlon Harewood, who scored a hat-trick against Villa earlier in the season, made no mistake as he sent Sorensen the wrong way and completed the West Ham comeback.

As Villa desperately tried to get back into the match, West Ham defended in numbers and clear-cut chances proved hard to come by.

In fact, the only telling efforts Villa had before the end of the match were provided by Baros, who shot straight at Carroll, and Mellberg who could only header over the bar from Milner's corner.