West Ham all but guaranteed Premier League survival tonight with a second successive win inside a week at Sunderland tonight.
Whilst some may have churlishly booed Allardyce and his players off the field following last Wednesday evening's win against Hull, those three points - combined with tonight's 2-1 victory - all but guarantees another season of Premier League football at the Boleyn Ground.In truth it was a scrappy game - the 37 combined shots produced just 13 on target (seven for Sunderland and six for West Ham) - but United took full advantage of a nervous home crowd and team who are now surely consigned to the dreaded drop into the Championship following this latest reversal.
Andy Carroll, Angel of the North and hated by the Black Cats due to his Geordie heritage struck the first killer blow with just ten minutes on the clock. The England international - who did his World Cup chances no harm at all this evening - rose above both John O'Shea and Wes Brown to power Mark Noble's corner into the back of the net.
And it was to be another early goal in the second half that set West Ham up for their second win inside seven days. Mo Diame, who had produced a disappointing first half performance fired home what proved to be the winning goal when James Tomkins' free kick was nodded down by Carroll and struck into the corner of Vito Mannione's net - albeit via a slight deflection - by the midfield powerhouse.
It is only on the rarest of occasions that the Hammers win comfortably away from home and once again the travelling fans - plus those watching at home and in the pubs - were left chewing their nails for the final half-an-hour after substitute Adam Johnson scored a well-worked consolation after 65 minutes.
But the home side managed to test West Ham's Spanish goalkeeper Adrian rarely in those final minutes, despite throwing Mannone up as an extra attacker for the final few set-pieces.
Gus Poyet, who has complained bitterly in the past when being defeated by Allardyce teams - most notably when managing Brighton in 2011 - was furious at referee Howard Webb for not awarding the home side a fairly obvious penalty in the first half when Kevin Nolan clearly pushed the ball away from goal with his elbow.
Curiously, Webb was perfectly positioned to spot the infringement - but failed to penalise West Ham's captain. Webb, of course, was the offical in charge when Andy Carroll received his marching orders for the non-existant elbow on Chico Flores last month; a case of the offical evening up the scores perhaps?
The win takes West Ham back up to 11th in the table with 37 points from 32 games - just one point fewer than that gained at this stage last season.
It also means that the Hammers have taken 22 points from the 12 Premier League games since Andy Carroll returned from injury in mid-Janaury - the kind of form which, if sustained over the course of the entire campaign, would lead to Champions League qualification.
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