West Ham United booked their place at Wembley for the Championship play-off final in ruthless style after thumping Cardiff City 5-0 on aggregate.

The Irons came into the game with a healthy 2-0 advantage from the first leg and quickly extended it through Kevin Nolan’s early header. Ricardo Vaz Te’s late first-half strike ended any hope of a comeback from the visitors.

West Ham strolled through the second half without reaching top gear and had far too much class for a desperately poor Cardiff side. Substitute Nicky Maynard rounded off a superb performance over the two games with a late strike.

Sam Allardyce’s side will face either Blackpool or Birmingham a week on Saturday for a place in the Premier League.

The Hammers named an unchanged side from the one which won so impressively in Wales on Thursday night.

Cardiff made two changes to last week’s team with Kevin McNaughton fit to start for them in place of Darcy Blake. Midfielder Stephen McPhail also came into the line-up with Don Cowie dropping to the bench.

There was a terrific atmosphere at a sold out Upton Park as the teams came out for the late afternoon kick-off.

Cardiff captain Mark Hudson had their first effort on target but his tame header failed to trouble goalkeeper Robert Green.

The Irons got off to the perfect start as they extended their lead in the tie with the opener after 15 minutes. Matt Taylor’s corner was not dealt with and skipper Nolan had the easiest task of nodding in from close range.

It should have been 2-0 immediately afterwards when Jack Collison’s cross was volleyed towards goal by Gary O’Neil but his effort cannoned off the crossbar.

The host again came close to finding the net after 34 minutes when Vaz Te found O’Neil and the midfielder’s strike was acrobatically pushed away by David Marshall.

West Ham were running riot and they killed off the tie five minutes before the break when O’Neil set up Vaz Te and the former Bolton forward thumped the ball into the top corner of the net.

The Irons were forced to take off Collison at the start of the second half with Henri Lansbury replacing the injured midfielder.

It had been a tie to forget for the Bluebirds and there was still no sign of any inspiration from the beleaguered away team.

Their misery was summed up by a hopeless strike from Kenny Miller which sailed high and wide of the target.

West Ham made their second change midway through the half with George McCartney replacing goalscorer Nolan.

The hosts should have netted again when Carlton Cole flicked the ball through for Taylor but his shot was parried by Marshall.

Maynard was brought on late on, for Carlton Cole, and the striker only needed two minutes to smash an effort into the roof of the net after running on to Lansbury’s pass.

The final whistle blew to the delight of the home fans who celebrated a trip to Wembley for the chance to seal an immediate return to the Premier League.

West Ham: Green; Demel, Tomkins, Reid, Taylor; Nolan (McCartney, 69), Collison (Lansbury, 48), Noble, O’Neil; Vaz Te, Cole (Maynard, 86)

Cardiff City: Marshall; McNaughton (Blake, 81), Taylor, Hudson, Turner; Lawrence, Gunnarsson, Whittingham, McPhail (Cowie, 76); Mason, Miller (Kiss, 76)

Referee: Mike Dean

Attendance: 34,682