West Ham vs Watford match report: Andy Carroll inspires Hammers as Mark Noble makes no mistakes from the spot

Andy Carroll may not be everyone’s cup of cha - Roy Hodgson has already admitted he is unlikely to take him to France in the summer for example - but there is little denying the West Ham forward is harder to ignore than a wet teabag in the mush. It isn’t always pretty, as his daft shove on Leicester’s Jeffrey Schlupp proved at the weekend, but he has an impact.

He took advantage of the unfamiliar bedfellows in the Watford defence to help the Hammers to victory here at Upton Park to get their season back to winning ways after a rocky run. Fifth, even fourth, and Europe is still within reach.

Carroll set the ball rolling against a side with Wembley on their minds with a volley after 10 minutes, Mark Noble added two more - both from the spot before Sebastian Prodl scored Watford’s minor consolation. Troy Deeney, on as a substitute, then missed a stoppage-time penalty.

With the FA Cup semi-final on Sunday against Crystal Palace very much in manager Quique Sanchez Flores’s thinking, he left Ben Watson, Ikechi Anya and captain Deeney on the bench and Odion Ighalo had his feet up at home.

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West Ham had not won a match since early March, having drawn their previous four league games to lose pace in the race for fourth. They had also been knocked out of the FA Cup in that time and their farewell to Upton Park season was threatening to drift away on the breeze like one of the ground’s beloved bubbles.

Carroll - whose appearance at the King Power on Sunday had such a dramatic impact on the game at both ends - and Manuel Lanzini returned to the starting line-up for West Ham in attack.

And it took only 10 minutes to pay off - West Ham going ahead when Dimitri Payet swung in a lovely cross from the left for Carroll, timing his run between the Watford centre-halves wonderfully, to guide the ball home with his left shin. It was a delicate finish to add to the thunderous three he had collected against Arsenal earlier in the month here.

Payet, a joy to watch, continued to cause havoc throughout the first half with his direct running, quick feet and ability to find space but it took until the 45th minute for the Hammers to make their superiority tell. A ball looped into the box and Jose Holebas mistook Cheikhou Kouyate for a stepladder and gave away a penalty. Noble scored inside Heurelho Gomes’ post as the goalkeeper went right, wrongly.

Moments later, in first-half stoppage time, Diafra Sakho broke free and squared to an unmarked Manuel Lanzini, who dragged his effort wide.

The second half began as the first had ended - just 10 seconds in and Sakho nipped ahead of a dawdling Holebas but couldn’t finish.

Watford’s meaningful forays forward were few but Jose Manuel Jurado should have scored when set up by Almen Abdi’s cross only to sky his effort. It was from good to bad for Abdi who promptly pulled down Michail Antonio in the box. Noble added his second from the spot - straight down the middle. Watford could do with kicking the habit of conceding penalties before Sunday. That’s four in two games.

An unmarked Prodl swept home a Steven Berghuis free-kick on 64 minutes, Carroll set up Victor Moses with a flick on but Gomes saved. The visitors’ Nordin Amrabat was sent off in the dying moments for a second bookable misdemeanour but for Watford, it’s all about Wembley, for West Ham, European nights at the Olympic Stadium remain a distinct possibility.

West Ham (4-4-2): Adrian; Antonio, Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Payet (Collins 90), Noble, Kouyate, Sakho (Moses 77); Carroll (Emenike 87), Lanzini.

Watford (4-4-2): Gomes; Paredes, Prodl, Cathcart, Holebas; Abdi (Deeney 76), Suarez, Behrami, Guedioura (Anya 55); Jurado (Berghuis 55), Amrabat.

Referee: Mike Dean.

Attendance: 34,857

Star man: Carroll

Match rating: 5