No doubting Tomas as Hammers win two in a row

West Ham 3 Burnley 2

It's exceedingly strange that some people decide to get married in the football season and then celebrate their anniversary ten years later, all without checking the WHU fixture list. But that's how I find myself getting a lift in a two-hour drive from Cardiff to the remote village of Caio where Her Indoors' eco-pals are holding a party. But I'm remaining in touch with events in Stratford as worrying news arrives on Whats App that Nigel has forgotten his lucky banana. Big Sam is laid low with dodgy tonsils while Matt and Lisa have been watching the under-18s and are gutted to be missing the West Ham float in the Lady Mayoress's parade.

By all accounts West Ham take half an hour to get going as Scott Parker's Burnley look the better side with Flemming, who isn't wearing number 007, almost getting on the end of a dangerous cross. The Clarets take the lead when Diouf allows Ugochukwu too much time to cross and Flemming gets ahead of Kilman too easily to head home. Is this going to be the familiar return to mediocrity after the Newcastle win?

Thankfully the Hammers get going after that shock. Bowen wins a corner from which Kilman has a header blocked. From another corner the Irons equalise. Summerville takes a short corner to Potts who returns the ball to him. Jimmy drives into the box and his shot is deflected into the air for Callum Wilson to stoop and score a typical poacher's goal. Not bad for someone Mystic Matt predicted might never score for us.

Potts again looks tidy in midfield and Mateus Fernandes is singled out on Match of the Day for a great performance and 98 per cent passing success rate. He's getting in tackles and driving the Hammers forward, while also taking some the creative pressure off Paqueta. But it's the arrival of Tomas Soucek, who replaces the dead-legged Freddie Potts, that changes the game. 

Flemming doesn't live twice as he heads over, while Summerville chooses the wrong option and shoots into the side netting. Fernandes wins a corner on 77 minutes. Summerville's dead-ball is cleared for Paqueta to cross back in. Dubravka flaps at the ball and only succeeds in pushing the ball on to Soucek, who scores from close range for the second week running and does his whirligig celebration. That goalkeeping error was the bit of luck we needed.

Areola does really well to stick a leg out to deflect Walker's goalbound cross as the Clarets' nearly equalise. With three minutes left sub Igor passes infield to Soucek. Burnley make Tomas  look like Franz Beckenbauer as he races through a vacant midfield to fire a shot at Dubravka. The keeper spills it and in a race between Bowen and Walker-Peters the former Saints man wins to score his first Hammers goal.

That should be it, but there's still time for the dodgy goalkeeping bug to catch on as the Fonz drops Bruun Larsen's shot into the path of former Hammer Josh Cullen who makes it 3-2. 

The verdict of Nigel's Burnley-supporting mate is, "Two poor teams proven by the fact that Soucek with his speed and skill  made the difference." That's certainly the first time I've heard the words speed and Soucek in the same sentence. 

Though the result was everything in this one and on ten points the Irons are now level with Burnley and one point behind Leeds and Fulham. It certainly makes the half-hour post-party trek in the rain down a dark country lane to a box room in a remote Airbnb rather more bracing. Thirty more points and we're safe!