Derby pride shattered by Solano

"You're getting sacked in the morning," sang the away fans, and although Pearson has given manager Billy Davies his backing, with promises of a generous budget for the January sales, any goodwill from the team's unexpected elevation to the Premier League will soon be used up if his team continue to turn in performances like this.

Home form is crucial to any promoted club's hopes of survival, but yesterday Pride Park was less a fortress than an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant from which West Ham tucked in greedily.

The visitors are looking for a director of football, apparently with manager Alan Curbishley's blessing, but on the pitch they had a conductor supreme in Nolberto Solano.

Although he was pushed very close by two-goal Lee Bowyer and the tireless, intelligent Carlton Cole, the Peru international ran the show and thoroughly deserved to see his free-kick sail past the former West Ham goalkeeper Stephen Bywater for the fifth and final goal.

Curbishley, who turned 50 on Thursday, may have feared an unhappy birthday when George McCartney joined West Ham's unbelievable injury list inside 14 minutes, but his reshuffled team took full advantage of desperate Derby to win for only the second time in seven Premier League games.

Like Watford before them, promotion seems to have come too early for Derby. They simply do not have the quality of player to compete over a 38-game season against more established clubs.

The mark of the very best footballers is not so much the extraordinary things they can sometimes do, but the consistency with which they do the basics properly. Derby's passing was at times lamentable and very seldom penetrative, while the moment when three home players went up,unchallenged by an opponent, for the same high ball, was schoolboy stuff.

Davies regularly showed his frustration, turning away from the pitch with a quick curse or screaming at players to move to where they should have been.

But some of the blame must be laid at the manager's door.

From his position as a withdrawn striker, Giles Barnes, the teenager in whom the crowd seem to have invested almost all their hopes of survival, provided neither great assistance to his midfield nor great support to the lonely looking Kenny Miller. The Scotland international was crying out for another forward to play up alongside him, but Steven Howard and Robert Earnshaw were left on the bench until the game was already over at 2-0 — and even they could not force Robert Green into his first save of the match.

There was always the strong suspicion that West Ham's class would tell. Bowyer, Solano and Cole were involved in virtually every decent moment of a first half which, at times, threatened to descend into a competition for the latest or most cynical foul.

Cole had already forced a save from Bywater, and Solano had left the goalkeeper rooted to the spot with a fantastic free-kick which hit the bar, when the West Ham pair combined to create Bowyer's opener just before half-time. Solano's high ball was won by Cole, whose header down found the unmarked Bowyer.

Although there was a suspicion that he controlled the ball with his hand, there was no doubt about the confident finish through Bywater's legs.

Davies may wonder if things would have been different had Miller converted a free header from Eddie Lewis's cross in the 50th minute, but that would be clutching at straws.

By then Matthew Upson had hit the bar after a Solano corner, so it was little surprise when West Ham scored again just after Miller's chance, the first of three goals in eight minutes.

Again Solano was the architect, stroking a pass to Etherington, who worked a quick one-two with Bowyer before firing home. Davies sent on Howard, but almost immediately Spector made it 3-0 when Derby's defence failed to deal with another Solano corner and Lewis could only help the ball over the line.

The biggest cheer of the afternoon was for the arrival of Earnshaw, but within seconds West Ham had scored again. Solano found Cole on the right and his cross, perfectly weighted and directed, demanded the sliding finish which Bowyer provided.

The away fans gave their lustiest rendition yet of "You're going down with the Tottenham" and they are right. The fans who poured out of the stadium when Solano made it five with a sumptuous free-kick know it, too.