Fredi Grabs Three

A Fredi Kanoute first half hat trick saw West Ham cruise to a 7-0 victory in their opening pre-season friendly at Ryman League Bishop's Stortford tonight.

Nigel Winterburn before the break and Svetoslav Todorov, Grant McCann and Paul Kitson in the second half were the other goalscorers as Hammers, who fielded a full strength side in the first half, swept aside their Ryman League First Division opponents with a convincing display of attacking football.

Glenn Roeder marked his first match in charge with a 4-4-2 line-up, with Sebastien Schemmel and Winterburn playing as full-backs either side of Hayden Foxe and Christian Dailly. The outstanding Michael Carrick and John Moncur formed a central midfield pairing, while Trevor Sinclair impressed on his return from injury on the right flank and Joe Cole operated on the left, until he limped off injured midway through the first half.

With shaven-headed skipper Paolo Di Canio combining skillfully alongside Kanoute up front, West Ham created a hatful of good chances to delight an appreciative 3,000 Woodside Park crowd.

New signing David James never had a shot to save on an untroubled debut and his understudy Shaka Hislop was only slightly busier as the visitors continued to dominate with a completely changed team after the interval, that included French trialist Lauren Courtois.

Roeder put out a new forward trio of Todorov, Kitson and the lively Jermain Defoe and only the latter knows how he failed to make it 8-0 in the dying minutes of this one-sided match.

West Ham: James (Hislop 45), Schemmel (Charles 45), Winterburn (Minto 45), Moncur (Ferrante 45), Dailly (Potts 45), Foxe (Soma 45), Sinclair (Defoe 45), Carrick (Lauren Courtois 45), Kanoute (Kitson 45), Di Canio (Todorov 45), Cole (McCann 23).

*Meanwhile, a young Hammers side won 2-1 at Ryman League Purfleet, thanks to goals from Dean Cleaver and Richard Garcia.

West Ham: J.Sealey, Clark (Johnson), Byrne, Watley, Britton, Uddin, Newton, Cascione (Cleaver), Riza, Garcia, Rowland.