West Ham 2 Birmingham 1

Birmingham were hit by two freak goals to leave them chasing the tie after the Carling Cup semi-final first leg.

Blues trailed to Mark Noble's wonder strike but where handed a lifeline through Liam Ridgewell's equaliser and Victor Obinna's red card for the Hammers, before goalkeeper Ben Foster's howler let in substitute Carlton Cole for the winner with 12 minutes left.

But the home side were good value for the result and forced Foster into a series of saves with the scores at 1-0, the goalkeeper splendidly denying Matthew Upson, Jonathan Spector, James Tomkins and Obinna - before his unceremonious exit.

And Alex McLeish's men are probably still wondering how Noble broke the deadlock on 13 minutes, volleying in from the tighest of angles after Scott Dann's positioning had left Foster unsighted.

It was a trademark set piece that got Blues back into the game with an equaliser, Ridgewell up from the back in the 56th minute to beat Winston Reid to a header from Sebastian Larsson's corner that left goalkeeper Rob Green rooted to the spot.

Obinna's needless red card three minutes later turned the tide further in the visitors favour, kicking out at Larsson in full view of referee Phil Dowd, who showed no hesistation in sending him off.

Blues tried to make their man advantage count and David Murphy nearly got his second goal in two games, flashing a header that dropped just fractionally wide of Green's right-hand post.

They were made to pay by substitute Cole who wasn't expecting it when the shot left his boot, but his tame shot somehow rolled over Foster's hand and trickled over the line.

It settled the game, going into the second leg at St Andrew's on January 26.