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Hull and Stoke chalk up wins

Rooney inspires Manchester United to victory

— PHOTO: AP

COCK-A-HOOP: Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney exults after scoring against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.

LONDON: Hull City gate-crashed the Premier League’s top four again on Sunday with a 1-0 home defeat of West Ham United — its fifth win in eight league games in its debut season in the top flight. Stoke City, another of the promoted clubs, beat Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 later to leave the London club rooted to the bottom of the table with just two points.

Tottenham ended the game with nine men after Gareth Bale and Michael Dawson were both sent off while a third Spurs defender, Vedran Corluka, suffered a head injury and was carried from the field unconscious.

Michael Turner headed Hull’s winner from an Andy Dawson corner after 51 minutes to make it three consecutive wins against London clubs after away victories at Arsenal and Tottenham before the international break.

Hull, favourite for relegation before the season, is now behind only Chelsea and Liverpool (20 points) in the league with 17 points, above both fourth-placed Arsenal and champion Manchester United in fifth.

Chances wasted

West Ham wasted several good chances including Wales striker Craig Bellamy firing over the crossbar from in front of goal just before the break. Carlton Cole also squandered the chance to equalise when his close-range shot bounced off the underside of the bar.

Tottenham’s afternoon began miserably when Bale was sent off after 19 minutes for tripping Tom Soares in the area and Danny Higginbotham buried the penalty low into the corner.

The visitors played some tidy football in response and Darren Bent equalised six minutes later.

Stoke went back in front after 53 minutes when Rory Delap converted a low cross and things soon unravelled for Spurs.

Corluka was caught in the head by the knee of his own goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes and was carried off after a seven-minute stoppage.

Ricardo Fuller then missed another penalty for Stoke before Dawson was harshly sent off for a tackle on Mamade Sidibe.

Stoke remains in the relegation zone with seven points while Tottenham is now five adrift of safety.

Big win

Wayne Rooney continued his remarkable goal-scoring run as Manchester United kept the pressure on Chelsea and Liverpool with a 4-0 victory over West Bromwich at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov and Nani were also on the mark for United.

Rooney also had what appeared a perfectly valid first half strike ruled out by referee Mark Halsey.

A golden period of three goals in 15 minutes started in the 56th minute when United broke out of defence, Berbatov sprung Rooney with a pass from the halfway line and the forward powered into Albion territory, easily sidestepping Ryan Donk, before beating the keeper. In the 69th minute, Ronaldo doubled the home team’s lead.

Two minutes further on, Berbatov netted a goal which his overall quiet performance had scarcely merited, nonchalantly turning in the ball at the far post.

Nani completed the rout on the stroke of normal time, turning in Rooney’s far post cross after Ryan Giggs and Berbatov had launched another flowing attack. The results: Hull 1 ( Turner 51 ) bt West Ham 0; Stoke 2 ( Higginbotham 19-pen, Delap 53 ) bt Tottenham 1 ( Bent 25 ).

Manchester United 4 ( Rooney 56, Ronaldo 69, Berbatov 71, Nani 90 ) bt West Bromwich 0. — Agencies

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