There was little premium quality on show as two-goal Bobby Zamora eased West Ham into the Carling Cup third round, on what proved to be an uncomfortably flat evening for Alan Pardew's side that stand 67 league places above Gary Mills' strugglers.
Sitting in fifth spot in the Coca Cola Championship, Hammers made six changes from the side that had drawn 1-1 with Ipswich Town on Saturday, while rock-bottom County made four switches from the team that has free-fallen into 92nd berth following last weekend's home defeat against Southend United.
And three of those recalled players instantly found themselves in the thick of the action as West Ham got off to a simply scintillating start.
Just 18 seconds were on the clock when fit-again Zamora tapped home the loose ball after Sergei Rebrov's low 18-yarder was palmed into his path by County keeper Saul Deeney.
Having just seen his pre-match talk evaporate into the East End night,Meadow Lane manager Gary Mills could have been forgiven for strapping himself into his dug-out seat and bracing himself for a goal deluge.
But West Ham were destined to barely threaten again in a first half that saw the Magpies refuse to be given the bird and, indeed, the visitors soon replied to stun a sparsely populated Upton Park.
On 13 minutes, Rob Ullathorne's deep free-kick was headed back across goal by Glynn Hurst where Mike Edwards, at the far post, hooked the ball onto Kelvin Wilson who nodded a simple equaliser over the line.
And midway through the first half, it could have been even worse for the red-faced Championship promotion contenders, when an embarrassing mix-up between James Walker and Malky Mackay let in Hurst who wastefully skewed his acutely angled shot into the side-netting of the unguarded Hammers goal.
On 52 minutes, Edwards was stretchered away with a nasty knee injury following a robust midfield challenge and, to add insult to injury, Hammers regained the lead just seconds later when Marlon Harewood laid off Rebrov's through-pass for Zamora to claim his second goal of the night with a low, curling 20-yarder into the bottom left-hand corner.
Within three minutes, however, plucky County were level once more when Ian Richardson ghosted behind the static, pushed-up West Ham defence to lash Ullathorne's searching free-kick beyond the exposed Walker from 12 yards.
But all that hard work was undone on the hour when Rebrov claimed the first goal of a distinctly unspectacular Hammers career to date, with a low 30-yard free-kick which somehow squirmed through the clutches of Deeney at the base of his left-hand post.
Still County refused to lie down, though, and only Walker's acrobatic stop denied Hurst a third leveller, while Deeney went a little way towards atoning for his earlier blunder when he denied Zamora the match ball with a low, 79th-minute penalty save after Ullathorne was harshly adjudged to have tugged Harewood to the ground.
Rebrov's fortuitous winner may have sent grateful West Ham into the third round draw but as the Magpies get back to the serious business of clambering out of the League Two basement they can take great heart from this chirpy performance as they head to Rochdale.