Goals from Anton Ferdinand and Marlon Harewood at Watford confirmed West Ham's position in the Coca-Cola Championship play-offs.
 | | Simon Oxley reports. |
Ferdinand chose an ideal time to score his first goal of the season with a deft finish after 42 minutes, while Harewood underscored the Hammers' second successive top-six finish with a thumping penalty in the second half. Although Heidar Helguson won and converted a penalty with a minute remaining, Alan Pardew's men were well worth three points and put up a professional performance that bodes well for their play-off semi-final encounter against Ipswich. Life at Upton Park has not been a cakewalk for Pardew this season, but he will savour this achievement - particularly as it meant former club Reading, who lost 3-1 at Wigan, missed out on the play-offs. Watford's young and inexperienced side rarely threatened West Ham's goal, but their brief had already been fulfilled after maintaining their Championship status last weekend. And after setting up a potential trip to the Millennium Stadium, Pardew will now be keeping his fingers crossed his side are not lining up alongside them next season. Watford may have had one eye on their summer holidays, but they offered stout resistence to the Hammers' early bluster. But once news filtered around Vicarage Road that Wigan had scored twice at the JJB Stadium, West Ham began to express themselves more freely and laid siege on Watford's goal. West Ham made the crucial breakthrough three minutes before the break when Elliot Ward's cross from the left found Ferdinand, who let fly with a well-executed volley that angled into the corner of the net via a slight deflection. Watford began the second half brightly, and fashioned their best chance of the game when Hameur Bouazza's header off Ashley Young's cross arrowed just left of James Walker's right-hand post. West Ham maintained the upper hand, however, and stretched their advantage from the penalty spot after 70 minutes. Jay DeMerit misjudged Harewood's flicked through-ball which was the catalyst for James Chambers to needlessly handle the ball in his own penalty box. Andy D'Urso had no option but to point to the spot and Harewood did the rest with a clinical finish. Substitute Sergei Rebrov's one contribution to the game was to bundle over Helguson in the penalty box late on. Helguson scored his 20th goal of the season but it was not enough to prevent Watford slipping to an eighth home defeat of the season and sending West Ham into the play-offs. Watford A Chamberlain, L Doyley, J DeMerit, D Cullip, J Chambers, A Young, A Bangura, D Blizzard, A McNamee, H Bouazza (78 J Osborne) , H Helguson Subs: P Mayo, J Osborne, R Kirk, A Mariappa, J Grant Bookings: H Helguson 70 West Ham J Walker, T Repka, A Ferdinand, E Ward, C Powell, S Newton (83 S Rebrov) , N Reo-Coker (90 C Dailly) , H Mullins, M Etherington (72 M Noble) , M Harewood, B Zamora Subs: S Bywater, C Fletcher, C Dailly, S Rebrov, M Noble Bookings: H Mullins 29 N Reo-Coker 59 E Ward 61 T Repka 86 S Rebrov 90 | 
