It was another disappointing afternoon for West Ham United at Villa Park as they were beaten by John Carew's first-half strike.

And there was yet more injury misery for the Hammers as Matthew Upson left the field with a suspected torn calf muscle. Upson's debut lasted less than 30 minutes before he was replaced by Christian Dailly. Early indications suggest the defender is facing a lengthy lay-off.

The home side threatened early on. Gavin McCann's long-range effort sailed just past the upright and moments later Stiliyan Petrov's volley also travelled wide.

Hammers' keeper Roy Carroll produced an excellent fingertip-save to deny Ashley Young's powerful shot from reaching the back of the net.

Then Upson's debut came to an end as he left the field gingerly, having suffered a suspected torn calf muscle. Dailly came on and the Hammers went in search of an opening goal. Jonathan Spector floated in a cross from the right flank but Kepa Blanco's header was off-target.

Five minutes after Upson's injury, Carew fired Villa ahead with a powerful strike. Carroll was unfortunate not to have kept it out as he dived to palm it clear.

The misfortune continued as Nigel Reo-Coker was booked on the stroke of half-time for an innocuous-looking challenge on Ashley Young.

The second half began with Villa pressing to double their lead. George McCartney stooped to head clear with Gabriel Agbonlahor poised to shoot inside the box.

Jonathan Spector executed a well-timed tackle to deny Young an excellent goalscoring opportunity and McCann saw his low drive edge wide.

With half an hour left on the clock Marlon Harewood replaced Kepa up front and Matthew Etherington came on for Luis Boa Morte.

Buoyed by fresh legs, Hammers pressurised the Villa defence. Yossi Benayoun's free-kick was deflected into touch but his resulting corner was too far behind Calum Daveport for the defender to be able to angle it towards goal.

Gareth Barry squeezed in front of Harewood to prevent him turning Etherington's pacey cross into the back of the net.

With less than 20 minutes to play, Bobby Zamora was penalised for an aerial challenge on Thomas Sorensen as he jumped to head a cross from Benayoun at the far post.

Harewood, Zamora and Benayoun combined well in the box but Benyoun was closed down before he could shoot.
But Villa went on the attack again and Carroll had to produce another excellent save to parry Petrov's powerful drive over the bar. Petrov had the ball in the net moments later as he latched onto a pass from Young, but the goal was ruled out for offside. 

The match came to a nail-biting climax as Hammers made a determined push for an equaliser. United had an excellent opportunity to level the scoring but Zamora couldn't make contact with Etherington's tantalising square ball.

Etherington took it upon himself to fire in the next effort but Sorensen stretched and pushed the ball over the bar as United's luck refused to turn.

From the resulting corner Sorernsen tipped Etherington's header onto the bar and the loose ball fell to Zamora, whose shot was blocked and Davenport's follow-up was saved.

The result puts United five points behind Wigan, who secured a one-nil win over Portsmouth.