They may be counting down to the Europa League final but Fulham continue to move upwards. With the biggest match in the club’s history scheduled for 10 days’ time, Roy Hodgson made seven changes to the team that started Thursday’s historic victory over Hamburg yet his side still beat West Ham to climb into the top half of the Premier League table.

It was not the campaign’s most ferocious contest. With West Ham seemingly satisfied that their top-flight survival is already a footballing, though not mathematical, certainty, proceedings began at a sedate pace, both teams passing methodically but without urgency.

Goalkeepers were an irrelevance until the 22nd minute, when Robert Green hurtled off his line to prevent Erik Nevland from connecting with a through-ball. One minute later it was Mark Schwarzer’s turn to remind onlookers of his presence as he plunged to his left to push a 20-yard shot from Mark Noble behind for a corner. Matthew Upson headed wide from the ensuing set-piece.

The home team responded instantly. Dempsey, the one player in this line-up realistically in the reckoning for a starting place in the Europa League final against Atlético Madrid, received a Nevland pass with his back to goal 25 yards out and swivelled smartly before sending a curling shot over Green. Two inches lower and it would have been a delicious goal, instead the ball clipped the top of the bar.

There followed another long lull. Manuel Da Costa injected some stimulus into proceedings in the 41st minute when he rumbled forward from the back and let fly with a dipping shot that Schwarzer did well to tip over. Fulham’s reserve centre-backs showed they are not about to supplant Brede Hangeland and Aaron Hughes by again allowing a West Ham player to meet Noble’s corner, but were reprieved when Radoslav Kovac headed wide from six yards.

Seconds before half-time Fulham took the lead following a move of deadly simplicity. Dempsey chested a long pass into the path of Davies and darted into the box in anticipation of the return, which arrived before the defenders could react. The United States midfielder fired low and hard past Green from 15 yards.

While Dempsey put forward his case for inclusion in Hamburg, three West Ham players were, in theory, attempting to play their way further into Fabio Capello’s thoughts ahead of the World Cup. Scott Parker was not as dynamic as usual, Upson failed to get a grip of Dempsey – who will be playing against England in South Africa – but Carlton Cole, after an ineffective first half, made a strong impression. The striker’s first meaningful contribution to the game resulted in an unfortunate own goal in the 58th minute, when Chris Baird’s snapshot deflected off the striker and into the net.

Three minutes later, however, he asserted himself more auspiciously, cutting the deficit by flicking a Noble free-kick into the net at the near post. He threatened to equalise moments later, shaking off a defender and turning sharply before banging a powerful shot into Schwarzer’s midriff from 20 yards.

Then West Ham shot themselves in the foot. A series of defensive errors ended with Jonathan Spector presenting the ball to Nevland wide on the right. The Norwegian crossed low to the back post, where the unmarked Stefano Okaka tapped into the net from close range.

Deep into stoppage time, with the crowd singing paeans to Hodgson and Fulham’s players having nodded off uncharacteristically, Parker cut into the box and pulled the ball back for Guillermo Franco to drive into the net from eight yards.

Premier LeagueFulhamWest Ham UnitedPaul Doyleguardian.co.uk

West Ham still bear the scars of a relegation battle with Bolton. Six years ago, the team that was always too good to go down, marshalled by Trevor Brooking, slugged it out punch for punch with the Bolton of Sam Allardyce.

West Ham did go down with 42 points and with a fine array of players. This West Ham side is plenty good enough to get itself relegated and is making the kind of errors that usually comes with a club in freefall.

The mistake was Robert Green’s who tried to beat down a shot from Gary Cahill that should have done no more than sting his gloves. As he tried to bring the ball under control, Ivan Klasnic nipped in and tucked it into the net. The mocking cries of “England’s number one” that rang around the Reebok was further proof that as we approach a World Cup year, Fabio Capello will go to South Africa without anything approaching a world-class goalkeeper. David James is still the best he has.

The ill-fortune was Bolton’s first, a product of some adventurous interplay between Klasnic and Chung-Yong Lee in which the Korean carried more than a suspicion of offside. Gianfranco Zola did not protest but sank deeper into his seat, his hair thinning, his face gaunt, the smile that played constantly on his lips in his pomp at Chelsea gone.

It would have returned when West Ham, briefly levelled with the kind of well-worked football that is Zola’s goal, a cross from Scott Parker, nodded on by Jack Collison and finished off by Alessandro Diamanti. It ought to have built a platform for something more but Bolton were always the more adventurous and aggressive side. Their third, a header from Gary Cahill rising above two defenders to head home Ricardo Gardner’s corner was typically Bolton. After their 3-3 draw with Manchester City described Bolton with typical Croat bluntness as being “in small shit”. They are still in the mire but four points in two games is a start when it comes to rising above it all.

While many of the sparse home support might have sacrificed a few points if it meant Gary Megson’s removal; those who left industrial Essex yesterday lunchtime would have done so wanting Gianfranco Zola to succeed while doubting he would. It is four months since they last travelled away — to Wolverhampton on the opening day — and won and in 51 years of coming to Bolton they had only tasted victory once, in 1995-96, the season almost everyone arrived at Burnden Park and shot the home side to bits.

If Zola was to succeed, he needed his best and most experienced players fit. The Sardinian must have suspected that Kieron Dyer, making yet another comeback, would not last the night but he must have hoped to have wrung more than 23 minutes from this still-princely footballer before he limped off. And when Scott Parker lay flat on his back after a clash with Fabrice Muamba there was a little cheer from some odd corners of the Reebok.

There was an edge to this contest that might be expected from two clubs flailing in the relegation zone. Kevin Davies gave Danny Gabbidon a working over in a footballing sense, before presenting Robert Green with the kind of shoulder charge that would have been routine in Nat Lofthouse’s time, for which the Bolton captain became one of four first-half bookings. Bolton, incidentally, were convinced Gabbidon handled the ball in the area when challenged by Chung-Yong Lee.

Half-time did not seem to interrupt Bolton’s rhythm one bit and they were back on the attack again almost immediately after the restart. It had been almost entirely one-way traffic but West Ham finally lent some creativity to the game on the hour. Alessandro Diamanti lofted the ball to Guillermo Franco, who almost worked his way into a one-on-with with Jaaskelainen before Knight made an excellent intervention. Bolton’s earlier supremacy was finally rewarded in the 64th minute when Klasnic split the West Ham defence perfectly with a through ball that left an easy finish for Lee. But the lead lasted just five minutes as Parker found Collison in the Bolton box, who teed up Diamanti to lash the ball past Jaaskelainen.

Premier LeagueBolton WanderersWest Ham UnitedTim Richguardian.co.uk