A Marlon Harewood second-half super strike gave West Ham a 1-0 win over Middlesbrough in the FA Cup semifinal at Villa Park in Birmingham on Sunday.
England Under-21 striker Harewood sealed a tense clash and clinched West Ham’s first FA Cup final appearance since 1980 with a classy finish midway through the second half.
They will face Liverpool in the final in Cardiff on May 13.
Middlesbrough’s misery was compounded when they were forced to play for almost 50 minutes without first-choice goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, who suffered a suspected fractured cheekbone after the 33-year-old Australian was injured following a collision with Hammers forward Dean Ashton.
With Australia’s World Cup opener against Japan in Kaiserslautern less than two months away, Schwarzer is now facing an anxious wait to discover the severity of the injury.
Having lost former manager John Lyall to a heart attack at the age of 66 last Wednesday — just two months after the death of another legendary club manager, Ron Greenwood — current West Ham manager Alan Pardew admitted that he felt his players were destined to win the game.
”We have lost Ron and John this year and the one word I wrote on my notes before I spoke to the players before the game was ‘destiny’,” said Pardew. ”Maybe this was our destiny and we have gone and done it. I’m so pleased for the families of Ron and John because they have lost very important people this year and we did this for them.”
With one route to silverware now closed, Boro can revive their season by reaching the Uefa Cup final later this week, and manager Steve McClaren is hopeful that the pain of losing this game will act as motivation against Steaua Bucharest.
The Romanians lead the Uefa Cup semifinal 1-0 after the first leg.
”You have to look at the bigger picture and realise that you don’t always get what you deserve in this game, but the players are hurt and there is nothing you can do to make them feel better,” said McClaren.
West Ham made a nervous start and goalkeeper Shaka Hislop was by far the busier goalkeeper inside the opening 10 minutes as Boro chased an early opener.
Brazilian Fabio Rochemback twice went close in that opening spell, while Hislop had defender James Collins to thank for clearing a goalbound Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink off the goal line.
Hislop then produced a solid save to keep out Stewart Downing’s low left-foot strike.
Pardew’s team could not gain a foothold in midfield against the experience of Rochemback and George Boateng, and Boro continued to pour forward, with left winger Downing impressive in front of watching England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.
The youngster created Boro’s best first-half opportunity when his pinpoint corner found Franck Queudrue on 34 minutes, but the French defender wastefully headed over from six yards.
West Ham’s first serious foray forward resulted in the injury that now leaves Schwarzer facing a race against time to be fit for the World Cup.
The ‘keeper collided with Ashton in an aerial challenge inside the six-yard box and after lengthy treatment was forced to leave the pitch to be replaced by understudy Brad Jones.
Ashton, whose challenge appeared to lack any kind of malice, was then subjected to continual booing from the Middlesbrough supporters, but he turned a deaf ear to the taunts and almost broke the deadlock when he headed against the crossbar early in the second half.
Matthew Etherington’s corner picked Ashton out at the far post, but the striker was back-pedalling and he could only direct his effort on to the top of Jones’s crossbar.
Having been second best for so much of the game, West Ham began to gain to control after the hour mark and captain Nigel Reo-Coker was unlucky not to score when he cut in and unleashed a right-foot strike inches wide of the far post.
The powerful Ashton continued to threaten for the Hammers, but a sloppy first touch denied him a golden chance when his chest-trap from Etherington’s cross bounced too far ahead of him, allowing Jones to beat him to the loose ball in the six-yard box.
But after surviving more near misses by Hasselbaink and Downing, West Ham booked a their place in the final when Harewood latched on to Ashton’s flick before turning and firing past Jones from 12 yards. — Sapa-AFP