Sam Allardyce had challenged his West Ham players to take out their frustration at Andy Carroll’s ‘unjust’ three-match ban by proving they could win without him. And they did.

But it was the response from his captain Kevin Nolan to some self-induced indiscretions — a seven-match ban for two red cards — that pleased Allardyce even more.

And from his team to a half-time rollicking for not putting this game to bed earlier, having dominated Villa in the opening half.

‘I gave the lads some stick at half-time for not being in the lead because of wasted opportunities,’ said Allardyce.

‘What I didn’t expect was for us to score twice in the first few minutes after the break, which effectively finished Villa off.’

Nolan scored both a week after Carroll had set up his two goals against Swansea before being sent off amid controversy by top referee Howard Webb.

West Ham spent last week disputing what they regard as an unjust decision, even taking their appeal to arbitration and, at one stage, considering legal action.

Having dropped into the bottom three, they felt the loss of Carroll for three ‘winnable games’ after his lengthy injury lay-off might cost them their Premier League status.

This victory has eased the pressure and Allardyce added: ‘He (Nolan) knew he had let himself down, as well as the players and the club. He was pretty down,’ said Allardyce.

‘But he has come back with renewed vigour, proven himself and what he means to the team, as a captain and as a player.

‘He is trying to put right what he did wrong after those two silly dismissals, and he has done that with four goals in these last two games.

‘The two goals here showed we don’t have to have an Andy Carroll to score goals.’

Allardyce added: ‘I gave the lads a bit of stick at half time about not getting the lead after so much really good attacking play, stretching the Villa defence on several occasions.

‘I thought we had wasted the opportunity to take the lead and we should have done a lot better in the final third

‘So I said to the players ‘don’t let that bite you in the backside’. But then you don’t expect to go out and score two in three minutes, as Kevin did.

‘We finished Villa off at that stage, with Kevin’s quality of finishing coming to the fore again.’

Nolan struck in the opening seconds of the second half with a cheeky back-heel after Stewart Downing had turned Villa full-back Ryan Bertrand inside out.

Two minutes later Nolan struck again, sidefooting the ball past Brad Guzan after dispossessing Fabian Delph in the penalty area.

What a different story for Villa as they slumped to their eighth home league loss — 10 in all if you count cup flops against Spurs and Sheffield United.

Villa’s furious boss Paul Lambert said: ‘The two goals were really disappointing, especially right after half-time. ‘I don’t think I’d taken my seat when they played a long ball and we never dealt with it.

‘Whether you’re young, old, or an experienced player, you deal with it. It was just a long ball and we should have dealt with it better.

‘The second goal was just a basic error, and then all of a sudden we came into life in the game. But conceding two goals is just not good enough. ‘The two goals irritated me because at half-time we’ve gone in level, and in the second half we’re attacking into our favourite end and you think something’s going to happen.

‘But the two goals during that two-to-three-minute spell put us on the back foot.

‘They were unacceptable and you cannot defend that way at this level.’

The introduction of Marc Albrighton after 54 minutes livened up Villa, his 30-yard volley hitting a post before Christian Benteke did the same with a header.

But it could have finished 3-0, Matt Taylor’s shot being blocked on the line by Leandro Bacuna.

—Daily Mail