West Ham fans turned on David Moyes after they slumped to an alarming 4-0 defeat at Brighton.
The Hammers are now winless in 11 away matches in the Premier League and still perilously close to the relegation zone after a feeble display.
It was another case of the curse of Brighton for West Ham – Moyes’ side have never beaten the Seagulls in the Premier League and left the Amex Stadium empty-handed, yet again, at the 12th attempt.
But this was far from unlucky. A penalty from Alexis Mac Allister, tap-ins for Joel Veltman and Kaoru Mitoma and a late strike from Danny Welbeck did the damage as the fans’ patience with Moyes ran out.
The usually supportive away following were singing his name in the first half, but he faced chants of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ and ‘sacked in the morning’ in the second.
Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi has no such problems, and he watched from the stands with his feet up while he served a touchline ban for his red card in the tunnel against Fulham a fortnight ago.
The Italian’s absence certainly did not knock his in-form side out of their stride.
They were gifted the lead in the 18th minute when the ever-dangerous Mitoma darted into the penalty area and was shoved to the ground by Jarrod Bowen.
Argentina World Cup-winner Mac Allister stepped up to place the spot-kick over Alphonse Areola’s dive and high into the net.
Bowen had an immediate chance to make amends when he raced through one-on-one with Jason Steele but his shot was too close to the keeper.
Steele, who at 32 was making only the second Premier League appearance of his career, justified his selection ahead of Robert Sanchez again moments later when he stuck out a leg to deny Tomas Soucek.
Moyes brought off the erratic Said Benrahma at half-time, with the away fans immediately voicing their displeasure at the decision.
Six minutes into the second half Brighton doubled their lead through right-back Veltman, who was only on the field after an early injury to Tariq Lamptey.
Mac Allister flicked on a Pascal Gross corner and Veltman was all alone at the far post to guide the ball in with his chest.
It could have been three moments later when Evan Ferguson bulldozed his way through but Areola made a fine save to push his shot over.
Things were going from bad to worse for West Ham and their desperation was clear when Bowen was booked for a blatant dive in the area.
In the 69th minute, Mitoma ended any forlorn hope of a comeback from the visitors with a far-post tap-in from Gross’s cross.
Areola tipped Julio Enciso’s shot onto the crossbar but the hammering was complete with two minutes left through substitute Welbeck’s 20-yard drive.
