Bitter twist for West Ham

Bottom club West Ham United's season took a bitter new twist yesterday when they twice squandered the lead and lost 4-3 at home to London rivals Tottenham in a dramatic Premier League game.

Paul Stalteri scored the winner deep in stoppage time after Tottenham had battled back from trailing 2-0 at half-time and then 3-2 with five minutes remaining.

Goals from Mark Noble and Argentine Carlos Tevez, his first since joining West Ham in August, had given the home side a deserved lead at the break.

Tottenham, who moved eighth with the win, dominated the second period and got back on level terms with a Jermain Defoe penalty and a volley from Finn Teemu Tainio.

Former Spurs striker Bobby Zamora came off the bench to head West Ham back in front after 85 minutes, only for Spurs to level again four minutes later with a curling free-kick from Bulgarian Dimitar Berbatov.

In a frenetic ending Tevez went agonisingly close to snatching the win for West Ham before a Spurs counter-attack ended with Robert Green saving Defoe's shot only for Stalteri to ram in the rebound.

Defeat leaves West Ham bottom on 20 points from 29 matches, 10 points behind Manchester City who are six points above the relegation zone with two games in hand.

Earlier, Blackburn Rovers beat Bolton Wanderers 2-1 thanks to two second-half penalties from South African Benni McCarthy.

Nicolas Anelka grabbed a late consolation for Bolton who are in fifth place. Blackburn are 10th.

Manchester United, 1-0 winners at Liverpool on Saturday, top the table, nine points ahead of Chelsea who won 2-0 at Portsmouth. Chelsea have a game in hand.

Rangers beat Hibs 2-0

Rangers earned a 2-0 win at Hibernian yesterday thanks to a double from Charlie Adam in their Scottish Premier League match.

Adam caught out goalkeeper Simon Brown after four minutes with a 25-metre free-kick at the near post.

Brown blundered again for Adam's second, also from a long range free-kick, by letting the ball squirm through his arms and legs then slip over the line on the hour.