A Carlton Cole header has ensured that West Ham United's promotion hopes are kept alive as Sam Allardyce's side have reached half time 1-0 up against Hull City.
The home side were almost ahead after just three minutes but in form forward Ricardo Vaz Te failed to find the back of the net with his close range header.
Hull started to improve and had their first real sight of goal as Liam Rosenior cut inside onto his left foot before curling his shot wide.
Matthew Taylor almost surprised Vito Mannone as his cross seemed to be heading into the far corner but the on-loan goalkeeper managed to recover quickly to palm the ball over the bar.
However, West Ham were ahead from the resulting corner as Carlton Cole beat Tom Cairney to Taylor's cross to head the home side into the lead.
The hosts were almost further in front just moments later but Vaz Te failed to hit the target after being put through on goal by Cole and the home side settled for a one-goal lead at the break.
