Malbranque ensures that revenge is served cold

West Ham 0 Fulham

Not for some time will the public address announcer again welcome West Ham supporters to "Fortress Upton Park", unless his tongue is in closer proximity to his cheek than it appeared to be yesterday. Three wins in eight days, two of them at home, seemed to have convinced a number of people who should have known better that the Happy Hammers had cracked it.

But the defence that collapsed so spectacularly at Everton and Blackburn has not suddenly become an immovable object, any more than beating Southampton, Chelsea and Ipswich makes Paolo Di Canio and company a match for the finest in the land.

Fulham could easily have doubled their season's total of three away goals, but were happy to settle for achieving a first away victory in the Premiership and climbing back above the their rivals from the other end of the District Line. Early in the afternoon, the familiar, frustrating story of their season continued, with abundant possession and inadequate penetration. Only later was the neat control and passing of the midfield quartet rewarded, and eventually they were threatening to score on every break.

As Jean Tigana's assistant Christian Damiano said: "After half-time the game was different, because West Ham had to take a big risk and we had the space." The home manager Glenn Roeder took the defeat as calmly as he had accepted the recent run of victories, complaining only mildly that the second goal should not have been allowed and praising the outstanding performances of the opposition's Steed Malbranque and Sylvain Legwinski. If Fulham were to end up sharing Upton Park next season, while Craven Cottage is belatedly brought into the 21st century, those brought up on West Ham's pass-and-move football would enjoy watching them.

The most famous recent meeting between the teams, the FA Cup final of 1975, was brought to mind yesterday by the presence of Bobby Moore's 10-year-old granddaughter as West Ham's mascot. Before the kick-off, she was presented with a Fulham No 6 shirt, but that was all the visitors gave their hosts. They were without Steve Marlet, their most expensive – some would say most extravagant – signing, who will be out for another two months with a hairline fracture of the knee. But the midfield, as well as running the game, scored the goals as well.

After Barry Hayles, sent clear by John Collins, shot weakly enough to allow Christian Dailly a block, possibly with his hand, Legwinski stole forward unmarked to head in Malbranque's corner. Greater fluency might have been expected from West Ham following their recent run of victories. They created a single clear chance until the last few minutes, Don Hutchison sending Frédéric Kanouté away early on to ease past Steve Finnan and side-foot a shot against the far post.

Otherwise the highlights of a dull first half were a bout of pushing between Hayden Foxe and Hayles, both of whom were booked, and a comical incident in which Nigel Winterburn slid into Bjarne Goldbaek, one of the Fulham substitutes jogging along the touchline.

West Ham's young striker Jermain Defoe warmed up vigorously throughout the half-time break and was summoned within 15 minutes to replace Laurent Courtois, Di Canio dropping deeper on the left. Before the scoring prodigy had a touch, however, Fulham had a controversial second goal. Di Canio tripped over Malbranque with his trailing leg before the Frenchman sent Louis Saha away and swiftly joined him in a four-against-four attack; his countryman played a perfectly weighted pass to his right and Malbranque beat Shaka Hislop with no great difficulty.

In the last half-an-hour, the West Ham defence was regularly embarrassed on the break and might have been punished again by Malbranque, Hayles, Saha, Louis Boa Morte and finally Goldbaek. By the final whistle "Fortress Upton Park" had been well and truly besieged.