Fulham 1 West Ham Utd 3:THE MANAGER cut an embattled figure as he stalked off the field at full-time having tasted another defeat and heard his competence questioned by the club's supporters. "You don't know what you're doing," they had sung early in the second half while, at the end, they made it clear that they wanted him out.

Yet the vitriol was not for Avram Grant, the endlessly under-fire West Ham manager, but his Fulham counterpart Mark Hughes, who now finds the chant affixed to his job description.

This was West Ham’s first away win in the Premier League since the opening day of last season and their travelling fans recognised the need to embrace the moment.

Carlton Cole continued his scoring streak against Fulham with the first league double of his career, either side of a Frederic Piquionne effort, as his team recovered from a dismal start to stun their hosts. Grant punched the air at full-time – he had needed a victory to prolong his employment and this one tasted so sweet. “My daughter has just sent me a message saying she knew we would win. Why didn’t she tell me before,” the Israeli said, with characteristic dryness.

Yet, for Hughes, the future looks laced with uncertainty.

Perhaps the greatest indictment on him and his team was that for the opening half-hour, they were in control. But they contrived to shoot themselves in both feet, surrender the initiative and invite the scorn of the home crowd.

It was alarming how quickly the tide turned once Dickson Etuhu had erred to present Cole with the equaliser. Hughes lamented his team’s lack of cutting edge in attack where Andrew Johnson continues to feel his way back after serious injury.

Hughes reported that Bobby Zamora would not be back until mid-February at the earliest and although he hoped Moussa Dembele might return at the weekend, he accepted he needed striking reinforcements next month. The problems up front were exacerbated by those at the back.

West Ham fell behind to an Aaron Hughes header and they would have gone 2-0 down if Johnson had accepted a clear-cut chance on 18 minutes from a driven Simon Davies cross.

Hughes’s goal was his first since he scored for his former club Newcastle United in August 2004.

Incredibly, West Ham worked themselves into the lead by the interval. First, Etuhu diverted Freddie Sears’ cross into Cole’s path for the equaliser and then Scott Parker’s centre from the left by-passed Fulham’s defenders and invited Piquionne to gobble up the volleyed chance at the far post.

West Ham bossed the second half, with Cole and Piquionne proving a handful. Cole went close on a couple of occasions and laid on a chance for Sears before he scored the clinching goal.

It was another instinctive finish into the far corner, after Hughes had been pressured into a loose header, and was his sixth goal in five starts against Fulham.

Hughes’s efforts to pep up his team in the 53rd minute, by introducing Eddie Johnson and Damien Duff for Etuhu and Clint Dempsey, were met with derision. “You don’t know what you’re doing,” chorused supporters who, by full-time, were yelling “Hughes out”.

“Psychologically, it’s good to be off the bottom,” Grant said. “I hope this is the turning point.”

Guardian Service