Gianfranco Zola secured his second straight victory as West Ham manager when his side beat Fulham 2-1 in their Premier League fixture on Saturday.

Carlton Cole broke the deadlock for West Ham two minutes away from the half time whistle and Matthew Etherington doubled the lead two minutes later. There was more trouble for Fulham before the half time whistle with Andrew Johnson receiving his second yellow card. The hosts tried to get back in the game through a Danny Murphy penalty in the 59th minute but West Ham hung on to claim three vital points from the tie.

It had been a troubled week for West Ham with an independent arbitration panel finding the club at fault in the Carlos Tevez saga that could see the Hammers pay more than £30 million pounds as compensation to Sheffield United.

The visitors started the match on a cautious note, allowing Fulham to dominate the possession early on but slowly assumed control of the game. With the half time whistle just minutes away, West Ham took a deserved lead in the 43rd minute when Etherington raced with the ball on the right flank and found Cole with a perfect cross and the striker made no mistake from close range.

Etherington turned the scorer two minutes later as he met Mark Noble's brilliant through ball before slotting it past Schwarzer to double the lead. Fulham's hopes of staging a come back in the second half took a massive blow when Johnson was shown his second yellow card for a late foul on Neill, leaving his side with just ten men on the field.

In spite of the numerical disparity, Fulham stepped up a gear in the second half and were rewarded in the 59th minute when referee Andre Marriner blew his whistle for a penalty after it looked as if Neill had handled the ball inside the area and Murphy made no mistake from the spot.

Bobby Zamora came close to pulling Fulham back on level terms but somehow managed to head his chance wide of the target leaving West Ham will all three points from the match.