Bishop fells Bolton

Bolton Wanderers 0

West Ham United 3

Bishop 46, Cottee 68, Williamson 89

Attendance:19, 047

LIFE for Bolton Wanderers in the Premiership looks like being short-lived. Their supporters gathered outside the ground to call for the dismissal of the club's joint managers, Roy McFarland and Colin Todd, after the defeat against West Ham at Burnden Park yesterday.

Wanderers are truly on the slide after this latest setback. Not only did they hand the points to West Ham, but their problems were compounded by the sending off of skipper Mark Patterson, who saw yellow then red in a four-minute spell for fouls on Ian Bishop.

"In the three years I have been at the club the fans have been great," Todd said. "They get frustrated just like us. Today we were very poor considering the standards we expect from the side. We have had difficult games so far but today we came up against a side in a similar position to us and we should have done a lot better."

In contrast, West Ham's manager Harry Redknapp was delighted with his side's emphatic win. "I thought we played really well. We've been in excellent form recently and we always looked in control."

West Ham set the tone in the first minute when Ian Bishop fired in a thundering shot that keeper Keith Branagan managed to tip over the bar.

Branagan then saved well from Tony Cottee and Iain Dowie as West Ham dominated, although Bolton's pounds 1.5m signing, Sasa Curcic from Partisan Belgrade, made an early impression with some probing runs at West Ham's defence.

But it was Bishop who sparked the match into life a minute into the second half with a thundering 25-yard shot that brought his first Premiership goal of the season. Tony Cottee scored the second in the 68th minute before Danny Williamson pressed home the visitors' superiority with their third a minute from time.