West Ham’s on-field fortunes have started to improve under the new joint-ownership of the two Davids, Gold and Sullivan.

But the release this week of the club’s annual accounts to 31 May 2009 highlighted how vital it is to the club’s survival that they continue to climb away from the increasingly fraught EPL relegation dogfight.

Meanwhile, opposition to West Ham’s desired move to the Olympic stadium after the 2012 games continues, with the club receiving due warning that they are not “the only game in town” when it comes to the stadium’s all-important “legacy.”

The Hammers convincingly won a so-called “relegation six-pointer” against fellow strugglers Hull City at Upton Park. And they followed that up with an impressive display, if predictable defeat, against a Wayne Rooney-inspired Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Goals from Valon Behrami, Carlton Cole and Julien Flaubert clinched a 3-0 win against the Tigers, the first time the Hammers have won two consecutive EPL games this season.

The win also took them to an impressive-looking 13^th place in the EPL table, although they still remain just four points clear of the drop zone.

West Ham’s ninth place in last year’s EPL came at a cost of £16.2m in pre-taxation losses.

In a move indicative of the populist attitude of the new owners, the results were published on the club’s web-site, rather than to shareholders first, despite the largely bad news they contained.

Sullivan had claimed overall debts were £110m, although this included his estimate of last year’s loss at “over £20m.” He has also said that initial cost-cutting has “wiped £15m” from that figure.

He added in his director’s report accompanying the accounts that “these results testify to the amount of work that has to be done to restore this club to a position of financial strength.”

Finance director Nick Igoe pulled no punches in his report. He said: “It must be concluded that the investment in the playing squad has not generated an appropriate return.

“Clubs with fewer resources and lower levels of expenditure on their squad have achieved a greater level of success.”

He also reported “exceptional costs in recent seasons, £47m in total, principally comprising the costs of a number of very damaging legal actions.”

A £2m compensation award to former manager Alan Curbishley, who recently won his case for “constructive dismissal” against the club, will appear in next year’s accounts.

Opposition to the Hammers’ putative move to the Olympic Stadium in 2012 has been voiced from a variety of sources.

London’s ex-Mayor Ken Livingstone suggested that there were legal hurdles to jump, saying: “There’s a legally-binding contract between the Mayor and the International Olympic Committee that the stadium will be an athletics venue.

“If we had said we were building a football stadium, we would not have won.”

And Margaret Ford, chair of the Olympic Park Legacy Company said: “West Ham are not the only show in town, there are plenty of other people who are interested in other uses for the stadium.”