Tevez makes Whites suffer in Sammy's bow

A good hiding at the hands of a team that has spent the last five months in the bottom three of the Premiership was hardly the most auspicious start to a managerial career.

And, although it might be unfairly premature to make the observation, Little Sammy cut a lonely figure as he stood in the technical area in the shadow of the main stand at Upton Park, just half an hour into the job he'd spent the last 14 years preparing for.

Smart, in dark suit, collar and tie and shiny shoes that replaced the T-shirt and shorts he wore at Chelsea a week earlier when he was a mere assistant manager, but lonely nevertheless.

Such is life as a football manager. The buck stops with him now and a thrashing in a game that could have secured a place in Europe, is hard to take.

But Lee put on a brave face, laughing off the taunts of ecstatic Hammers fans, who sensed this was the pivotal moment in their version of the Great Escape, and holding back in his criticism of his new charges.

For, while he saw major flaws - his game plan was ignored by players who didn't get the basics right as they contributed to their own downfall - he saw promising signs in a second half performance that had the home crowd needlessly biting their nails as the clock ticked down on their sixth win in eight games.

Anxiety that was summed up by the local radio commentator who screamed to his listeners: "These are nervous times. If you've been here all season you'd understand that . . . it's only a two goal lead and there's still six minutes to go!"

Wanderers had given themselves a glimmer of hope that they might turn it round when Gary Speed, Lee's newly-appointed player-coach, pulled a goal back on 66 minutes to confirm them as the dominant force. But, perhaps the most encouraging sign was seeing Speed, along with Kevin Nolan and Kevin Davies, booked for dissent as their emotions boiled over.

Avoidable yellow cards for back-chatting to referees would normally incur the wrath of a manager, but Lee saw these as evidence that three of the most influential figures in the dressing room were taking defeat so badly.

"I've got no doubt about the commitment of the football club," he said as he fielded the predictable post-match questions.

"OK, if we needed a sign, you could see with the commitment they showed in the second half.

"I've got no doubt they are a great bunch of lads and they are a credit to work with."

It was all too easy to put the defeat down to the events of the previous week - the shock departure of Sam Allardyce with two crucial games still to be played, Lee's immediate appointment and the almost daily speculation that key players were also heading for the exit door.

And, while he will soon surely tire of Big Sam's shadow being cast over everything he does, Lee was happy to play ball with his inquisitors.

But he refused to blame the defeat on the managerial comings and goings.

"The events of the last week certainly haven't helped," he acknowledged, "but I wouldn't dare use that as an excuse because I've said all along that the players have applied themselves superbly well and credit should go to them.

"As for me, I knew what I was letting myself in for. It's all about winning, all about results and with not winning today I understand what people will say. They'll be putting it down to other factors, but I'm not."

As supportive as he was of his players, Lee could not gloss over the woeful inadequacies of their performance in the first half hour when Carlos Tevez - the unacceptable face of Premiership duplicity - was given more licence than he ever thought possible to run riot.

And how he made Wanderers pay: a trademark free kick that Jussi Jaaskelainen knew was coming but could nothing about; good pace and support play to convert an easy second as Wanderers were caught on the counter-attack by the brilliance of Mark Noble and the speed of Luis Boa Morte; then a brilliant assist for Noble to volley a sensational third that had the happy Hammers on easy street with just 29 minutes on the clock.

The fear was that the game that could have sealed their entry to next season's UEFA Cup could turn out to be an even bigger embarrassment than the thrashings they had witnessed at Middlesbrough, Tottenham and Manchester United during a wretched run of results that, since the turn of the year, had seen Wanderers win just four of 16 Premiership games.

The way they were caught out so alarmingly in the first half hour when all three goals were the result of players being caught on the ball - David Thompson, Nicolas Anelka and Ivan Campo - and their vulnerability in the full-back positions where Campo and Ricardo Gardner looked like the converted midfield players they were, wrecked any hope of Lee's game plan paying off.

Did he do anything different to what Allardyce would not have done? No. Nolan returned from injury and joined the front line, where El-Hadji Diouf was still missing, and with Campo again filling in for the injured Nicky Hunt at right back, Speed anchored the midfield with Thompson to his right and Andranik to his left.

The early signs were promising but, once Tevez lit the blue touch paper with his unstoppable 10th minute free kick, Curbishley's troops - vilified as the Baby Bentley Brigade two months ago - never looked back.