The fairytale ending to a season that saw the Hammers return to the top flight was destroyed by the saving hands or the Red’s Spanish keeper Reina.

The Hammers were indeed happy as they were two up within twenty minutes as they capitalised on opportunities presented to them by Liverpool errors some forced and some not. Liverpool should have had one goal back when Crouch’s strike was deemed offside by the referee’s assistant. Having found how to breach the iron’s defence Gerrard floated a diagonal ball which was met sweetly by Djibril Cisse at 2-1 it was very much game on.

The Liverpool equaliser was simplistic but something that members of the striker starved England squad should pay attention to. Kick the ball high up to Crouch so he can knock it down for Gerrard to hammer home.

The fairytale looked on again when Konchesky’s misdirected cross flew over Reina and dipped under the bar and into the back of his goal. That was until Liverpool replicated what had happened earlier only this time it was much more testing of the ability of Liverpool’s golden child, as he did last year in Istanbul Gerrard stepped up and  volleyed  another knockdown over thirty yards into the back of Shaka Hislop’s goal with only seconds of normal time to spare.

Extra time looked more like a scene from Braveheart or Saving Private Ryan wit walking wounded all over the pitch, both managers had used all of their substitutes so the players had no choice but to carry on. Sven may have concern over the fitness of Gerrard as he appeared to be crippled with cramp.  With the game moving at a crawl West Ham broke once or twice forcing a great save from Reina. Minutes later it was all down to penalties.