Hammers, Charlton secure points

Premiership:   In the race for survival second from bottom West Ham beat Middlesbrough 2-0 thanks to an early Bobby Zamora goal…

Premiership:  In the race for survival second from bottom West Ham beat Middlesbrough 2-0 thanks to an early Bobby Zamora goal and one on 45 minutes from Carlos Tevez.

The first came when the Argentinian crossed from the right and after two deflections the ball fell to Zamora and he drove in a shot from six yards.

Tevez grabbed the second when Boro made a hash of dealing with George McCartney's cross and he was on hand to fire home.

Unfortunately for Hammers boss Alan Curbishley his old club Charlton also won, cutting the gap between themselves and Sheffield United in 17th to one point with a 1-0 victory over Wigan at The Valley.

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Darren Bent kept his nerve to score an 86th-minute penalty, with the result also taking the Addicks within three points of Wigan.

Sheffield United lost 1-0 at Bolton, Kevin Davies making the breakthrough for Wanderers from a Nicolas Anelka assist after concerted pressure to end a run of three consecutive defeats for the UEFA Cup challengers Bolton.

Portsmouth and Fulham drew 1-1 at Craven Cottage, Niko Kranjcar's curling right-foot shot flying into the top corner in the fourth minute with the aid of a slight deflection off Liam Rosenior to give Pompey the early advantage.

But the Londoners snatched a point with a late Ian Pearce equaliser which deceived David James with the aid of a huge deflection.

Manchester City, boosted by their win over Middlesbrough last time out, were victorious again as Emile Mpenza scored the only goal at Newcastle in the 81st minute after Scott Parker had a first-half goal disallowed for the hosts.