Marlon Harewood got the boo-boys off his back with two well-taken goals - but a youthful West Ham were made to work all the way against lowly Southend.
Midfield maestro - Nigel Reo-Coker impressed for Hammers
The frontman's well-taken brace opened his account for the season, and did enough to silence the growing unease at a spluttering home display at Upton Park.
With an unfamiliar line-up taking time to settle down, Harewood's early opener did not pave the way for the expected rout.
And for much of the second half it was the League Two strugglers who seemed poised to upset their more illustrious hosts, with Southend squandering a string of chances to level.
Having survived the early scare the Shrimpers soon hit back with Carl Pettefer's 11th-minute cross just evading both Drewe Broughton and Nicky Nicolau in the Hammers' six-yard box.
The narrow miss was soon to increase in significance just 30 seconds later when West Ham opened the scoring.
A Blues attack broke down and Reo-Coker again sent Harewood running through on goal.
This time the 25-year-old made no mistake - drilling home a low right-foot shot into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.
Seven minutes later though, the Seasiders should have drawn level as the Roots Hall side wasted their best opportunity of the evening following an impressive cross-field ball from Kevin Maher.
The Shrimpers skipper picked out Mark Gower on the left flank who then curled over an inch perfect cross only for an unmarked Drewe Broughton to somehow head wide of the right-hand post from six yards.
After the break, Blues began to create further clear cut chances and, in the 49th minute, the recalled Adam Barrett acrobatically failed to reach an Andy Edwards header from Nicky Nicolau's curling free kick.
Blues hit back with Maher heading a Tes Bramble cross straight at Walker from 18 yards but, deep into added on time, Hammers doubled their advantage courtesy of a speedy counter attack.
Harewood collected a rebound from a Mark Bentley shot to race half the length of the pitch, ignoring the well-placed Chris Cohen as he burst into the box and slid a low shot through the legs of Griemink to secure a slightly nervous passage to round two.
Published Wednesday August 25, 2004
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