West Ham’s Emmanuel Emenike and Dimitri Payet run riot at Blackburn
Jamie Jackson at Ewood Park
Date Published Sunday 21 February 2016 16.17 GMT

West Ham United took advantage of a Blackburn Rovers implosion after Chris Taylor was needlessly sent off to secure passage into the FA Cup quarter-finals.

As Paul Lambert, the Rovers manager, said: “I thought for 55 minutes we were very good. The sending-off kills us, it opens the game up. It’s hard enough against 11, let alone 10.”

Taylor’s red card came with the score 2-1 and the tie in the balance. Rovers’ early lead had been overturned but their start to the second half was promising and they had West Ham under pressure until Taylor decided to take out Victor Moses in a no-man’s land near halfway.

Jonathan Moss, the referee, showed the player a second yellow card and West Ham scored three more times despite having Cheikhou Kouyaté sent off – a decision the club will appeal against.

The visiting No8 clipped Adam Henley’s heels yet the left-back seemed to have pushed the ball too far ahead. Slaven Bilic, the West Ham manager, said: “I didn’t see the replay but from my position I am not happy with that. I know the ball went to our keeper so it is definitely not a goalscoring opportunity. Foul, okay, but not a red card so we are going to appeal and I think we have a really strong case.”

This was the day’s only tie to feature a non-Premier League club and West Ham’s lofty position of seventh and Rovers’ lowly position of 19th in the Championship would have further enhanced the shock factor should Lambert’s men have managed to knock out the Hammers.

The Scot’s side are eight points above the drop zone, a comfortable cushion, yet Lambert still chose to make five changes, to Bilic’s four – resting Corry Evans, Grant Hanley and Jordi Gómez, who would usually make the strongest XI here.

Lambert cited 11 matches in 31 days and a “massive game” on Wednesday against Derby County but it was a shame he did not field more of his better players to have the best chance of progressing.

When Ben Marshall gave Rovers the lead Lambert appeared vindicated. Twenty minutes were gone when Elliott Bennett swung in a corner from the right. It was headed out by Michail Antonio and bounced into Marshall’s path. Dimitri Payet should have stood firm but instead the Frenchman jumped away to shield himself and Marshall’s 25-yard finish went low, expertly aimed past Darren Randolph’s left hand.

It was a fair reward for Rovers’ early share of the ball but they held the lead for only six minutes. The equaliser was the kind of goal all managers hate conceding as Moses was allowed to run free before firing home a 20-yard effort beyond Jason Steele.

This had the 7,000 Irons fans partying and it presaged West Ham pinning Rovers back for most of the remainder of the half. By the break the travelling contingent had witnessed a second goal. This arrived from a Payet free-kick which the same player won after a trademark run caused Taylor to commit a foul and receive his opening booking. From a position to the left of the home penalty spot Payet bent in a 25-yard humdinger that was his eighth goal of his first season at the club. Payet celebrated this by running into Bilic’s arms, and the manager later said: “On the ball he is there with Luka Modric from the players I have trained so far. Dimitri is one of the best I have trained.”

To get back into the contest Rovers had to take back the initiative. The second half began promisingly, Marshall – again on his left foot – taking aim at Randolph’s goal and the home side spending some time playing around West Ham’s area.

But Taylor was soon to commit the crime of senselessly hacking down Moses and off he trudged. Some Rovers supporters were furious at him and the forward appeared close to tears.

West Ham pushed forward ruthlessly and enjoyed plenty of space. Kouyaté found Emmanuel Emenike near Randolph’s goalline and he finished for a first strike for the club. On 75 minutes Kouyaté received his red card but it came too late.

All it meant was that the teams evened up but West Ham continued to dominate. Emenike scored again after 84 minutes, to send some of the sparse 18,793 crowd home early, as did Payet, also with his second, in added time.