Bilic has last laugh over Hammers

SLAVEN Bilic came back to haunt his former club, his West Brom side dumping West Ham out of the Cup at the London Stadium.

- Erika Stephen

The Championship pace-setters ran out deserved winners thanks to Conor Townsend’s early strike.

Bilic said: “I’m happy, very pleased with the result and even more with the performance.

“We were positive from the start, we were brave, we kept the ball really well.

“I said at half-time the only thing I wasn’t happy about was the score. We were winning, but we should have been up more.”

Gallingly for West Ham, this was pretty much their strongest available line-up while Bilic made eight changes to his side, with the Croatian’s priority lying with the promotion race.

Not only that, but Albion also played the final 18 minutes with ten men after Semi Ajayi was sent off for a second booking.