Roeder unflinching despite three more hits

Bottom of the Premiership, the ground opening beneath his feet, there was something defiantly noble about Glenn Roeder.

Loyalty is a quality which traditionally has been cherished at Upton Park but the time is fast approaching when a decision has to be made by their beleaguered chairman, Terence Brown, who was again the target for supporters' anger after West Ham, with complete predictability, had become the seventh successive victim of a resurgent Manchester United.

A manager who had been denied a second-minute penalty or seen a perfectly good goal disallowed at Old Trafford might in Roeder's position have been tempted to lash out at his ill-luck, especially if he had previously seen his side surrender four points to two last-minute goals. All Roeder would say is: "We have to take the hits," and point out that Jermain Defoe's equaliser against United at Upton Park last month should have been ruled offside.

West Ham have taken too many hits already. It is a cast-iron rule of the Premiership that no team occupying bottom place at Christmas avoids relegation, not even Ipswich, who last season won seven games out of eight to climb as high as 12th by the beginning of February before falling apart again. If West Ham are to cross the 40-point barrier that usually guarantees safety, they will have to pick up almost as many points in the second half of the season as Tottenham did in the first. In the club's east London heartland, the mathematics must seem terrifying.

"People find it hard to believe I can stay calm," said Roeder. "They put themselves in my situation and say that they couldn't handle it, but I can. We can only play a certain way. There will be no strong-arm tactics, no long balls. We can only play our way out of trouble and we have to stay true to our beliefs."

Although Sunderland sacked Peter Reid after losing at Arsenal, a principle which if carried across football would find virtually every manager in the country unemployed, losing to Manchester United should not bring about the end of Roeder's management. However, should they fail to beat either Bolton or Fulham, the crisis may overflow entirely.

Assuming he survives into the new year, Roeder has no money to fund transfers, although he thinks he could probably afford to bring in three players on loan.

By no means were West Ham disgraced, as it seemed they might be once Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's header and Juan Sebastian Veron's free-kick had put United two-up by the time the match was 17 minutes old. They were simply badly beaten by a team which Roeder said was now in "full flow". They did not force a corner or require Fabien Barthez to make a save until the 78th minute, and that was from a header by his own centre-half, Wes Brown.

The inquest done, Roeder, whose 1-0 victory here last December he had described as the finest moment of his managerial career, went off to seek out Sir Alex Ferguson to talk him through what must be the worst of times.

In contrast, the Manchester United manager could hardly have expected the last month to have run better. Arsenal, Liverpool and Newcastle had all been beaten and now they had dealt with West Ham, a club which relative to its size has caused them more problems than almost any other, with ruthless efficiency.

Had Ruud van Nistelrooy not been denied by David James, United would have had more than Sebastian Schemmel's own-goal to show for their second-half efforts.

With Roy Keane, absent since August, likely to be available for Blackburn on Sunday, this title race, like the one in 1999 that followed Arsène Wenger's first double with Arsenal, may last until the very end.

Goals: Solskjaer (15) 1-0; Veron (17) 2-0; Schemmel og (61) 3-0.

Manchester United (4-5-1): Barthez 6; G Neville 6, Brown 7, Silvestre 6, O'Shea 8 (Blanc 5, 73); Solskjaer 6 (Beckham 6, h-t), P Neville 5 (Forlan 5, 73), Scholes 6, Veron 7, Giggs 7; Van Nistelrooy 5. Substitutes not used: Richardson, Ricardo (gk).

West Ham United (4-4-2): James 6; Schemmel 4, Repka 3, Dailly 4, Minto 5 (Breen 88); Lomas 5 (Moncur 85), Cole 6, Carrick 7, Sinclair 6; Pearce 4, Defoe 7. Substitutes not used: Camara, A Ferdinand, Bywater (gk).

Referee: R Styles (Hampshire) 4.

Booked: West Ham: Repka.

Man of the match: O'Shea.

Attendance: 67,555.