West Ham's Alessandro Diamanti insists the players are all behind boss Gianfranco Zola after helping the struggling Hammers to move out of the Premier League bottom three with victory over Birmingham. Diamanti sprinted 50 yards to hug Zola on the touchline after putting West ham in front with a sensational free-kick on the stroke of half-time in Wednesday night's 2-0 win at Upton Park.

Zola's team had clearly been stung by co-owner David Sullivan's pre-match comments about overpaid players and a "nice" manager.

"Sometimes things are said to provoke a reaction," said midfielder Scott Parker.

"The only thing we could do was react on the pitch and we did that. Maybe it was what they call reverse psychology."