The Welsh international striker, booed throughout by Posh fans just for being Craig Bellamy, responded with two high-class finishes as West Ham eased to victory in last night's friendly at London Road.

He proved to be the difference between two good quality-passing sides. Bellamy's goals saw The Hammers 2-0 up at the interval even though Posh had created far more goalscoring opportunities.

In fact Posh keeper Joe Lewis just had to pick the ball out of the back of the net twice in the opening half, while Robert Green was forced to stretch to tip a superb overhead kick by Aaron Mclean wide of the post, leap high to push Craig Morgan's header over the bar, use his feet to thwart Chris Whelpdale's drive and jump to divert George Boyd's audacious chip over the bar.

Posh played some outstanding attacking football, notably on 10 minutes when Mclean, Boyd and Craig Mackail-Smith linked up brilliantly forcing Matthew Upson to throw himself into the way of Mclean's shot.

Posh boss Darren Ferguson sent on arguably his current first-choice side at the start with Shane Blackett's pace at the back preferred to Chris Westwood's experience, but even an Olympic sprinter would have struggled to keep up with Bellamy.

Bellamy was caught offside about a dozen times, but he escaped onto two long balls to score his goals.

As early as the second minute Scott Parker found him beyond the Posh defence and he scooted round Lewis to score and two minutes before the break he supplied a classy lobbed finish after reaching Lucas Neill's long punt forward.

West Ham did Posh proud by sending a powerful side which included £5 million summer signing, Valon Behrami, a Swiss international who proved within a minute that he would fit into the Premier League by delivering an outrageous dive to win a free-kick.

It remained an entertaining end-to-end encounter after the re-start and Whelpdale should really have pulled a goal back straight away, but he sent a free header from a Russell Martin cross wide of a post.

Posh skipper Craig Morgan then produced a fine block to deny Carlton Cole a tap-in after another surging run from Bellamy. Cole's presence for the entire 90 minutes ensured The Hammers were never likely to score a more commanding victory.

The mass substitutions employed by Posh around the hour mark predictably disrupted their flow, although newcomers Paul Coutts and Shaun Batt showed some neat touches as did Alfie Potter.

Boyd struck the foot of a post with a 20-yard volley with his last contribution before becoming the seventh Posh substitution.

Performances rather than results are key at this stage of the year so Posh can reflect on a good night's work, certainly on the pitch at least.

Off it, questions might be asked as to why a crowd of under 5,500 caused a 10-minute delay to kick-off.


Match details... how they lined up

Posh: Joe Lewis, Russell Martin, Tommy Williams, Shane Blackett (sub Chris Westwood, 60 mins), Craig Morgan (sub Kieron Charnock, 74 mins), Dean Keates (sub Paul Coutts, 60 mins), Charlie Lee (sub Micah Hyde, 66 mins), Chris Whelpdale (sub Shaun Batt, 60 mins), George Boyd (sub Alfie Potter, 74 mins), Craig Mackail-Smith, Aaron Mclean (sub Scott Rendell, 60 mins).

West Ham: Robert Green (sub Marek Stech, 74 mins), Valon Behrami (sub Joe Widdowson, 66 mins), Lucas Neill, Anton Ferdinand (sub Jack Collison, 87 mins) Matthew Upson, Scott Parker, Julien Faubert, Mark Noble, Kyel Reid (sub Junior Stanislas, 83 mins), Carlton Cole, Craig Bellamy (sub, Freddie Sears, 74 mins).

Referee: Kevin Wright (Cambs).
Goals: West Ham - Bellamy (2 mins & 42 mins).
Attendance: 5,352