All the pre-match talk had centred around former Blues owners David Gold and David Sullivan who had suggested that a 25 per cent salary cut was needed to be taken down Upton Park way.
- West Ham United 2-0 Birmingham City: As it happened
But following this vital victory, the Hammers' new co-owners should be thinking about giving Gianfranco Zola's boys a pay-rise after goals by Alessandro Diamanti and Carlton Cole sent West Ham into the safety zone.
Languishing precariously in 18th spot, the cash-strapped Hammers had made four changes from the side that had lost at Burnley on Saturday as Diamanti, Mido, Herita Ilunga and Radoslav Kovac came in for the injured Benni McCarthy (knee) plus substitutes Jack Collison, Jonathan Spector and Mark Noble.
Certainly no quarter was given by Zola's men in the opening exchanges, as the determined Mido twice threatened, before Joe Hart saved stinging long-rangers from James Tomkins and Diamanti.
Kicking off ten places above the Hammers, the Blues had kept the same 11 that finished Sunday's 2-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
That meant there were starting places for two-goal hero Kevin Phillips plus Keith Fahey and Craig Gardner as Christian Benitez missed out, while James McFadden took his place on the bench alongside Sebastian Larsson.
Despite being on the back foot, the Midlanders saw Stephen Carr's clever byline cross cause mayhem in the Hammers defence and then Phillips played in Cameron Jerome, who slid inches wide to the relief of West Ham's frost-bitten fans amongst the crowd of 34,458.
On the half-hour mark, Cole powerfully turned his markers before agonisingly curling his angled shot across the face of Hart and beyond the far post, while moments later, the Hammers' top-scorer saw his point-blank shot bravely blocked by Scott Dann.
In first-half stoppage time, the Blues defender was in the thick of things once more, when he joined Lee Bowyer in referee Mike Dean's book for ending steam-rollering Scott Parker's penetrating run with a crude trip.
And Dann's punishment was compounded when the left foot of Diamanti curled the consequent 20-yard free-kick over the Birmingham wall and under Hart's left-hand angle to give West Ham a richly-deserved interval lead with his sixth goal of the season.
Just after the restart, the Italian went looking for a second but, after leaving a trail of defenders in his wake, he saw the well-placed Hart hold his 25-yarder and, on the hour mark, he blasted Cole's cut-back high onto the frozen wastes of the Bobby Moore Stand.
Midway through the second half, Zola brought on Ilan for the tiring Mido, while Alex McLeish replaced Fahey with McFadden but, within seconds of those switches, West Ham doubled their advantage.
This time, the patient Valon Behrami played in the overlapping Julien Faubert and the Frenchman's knee-high cross into the six-yard box was met by the diving Cole, whose eighth goal of the season cemented the three precious points that lifted West Ham into 14th spot.
Source: DSG
