Controversy ran amok in this well spirited and highly contested Premier League tie, where West Ham United threw away a 1-0 lead and their woes were compounded by a very poor referring decision that left Sam Allardyce shocked.
The 3pm kick off, which seemed an odd time to play for West Ham, as this was our first Saturday 3 o’clock for two months, started in a very professional way and it was Everton who took charge of the game early on. West Ham never started the game for the first ten minutes looking quite lackadaisical in the middle and rarely won the second ball. This then followed with a Sylvain Distan header that bounced over the bar. Shortly after, West Ham received a jolt to the system as Leon Osman scored from 6 yards with a guided header from a corner, only to see it ruled off for a foul on the goalkeeper.
This event seemed to see the momentum swing in West Ham’s favour as the side then looked to have a purpose to their attacking and this was evident from a Carlton Cole strike that beat Tim Howard. West Ham led the game into the break for half time in what ended as quite an uneventful half. Both sides looked to attack but neither really threatened the goalkeepers into making a save of any note. This really showed that West Ham in the final third had become quite resilient, meaning that Everton had possession outside the box, but couldn’t cause much concern for Jussi Jaaskelainen due to the strong defending of James Collins and Winston Reid.
The second half began nearly the same as the first half, with West Ham United not really starting and this showed when Nikica Jelavic somehow, could only find the keeper with the goal gaping just 4 minutes into the second half. On the hour mark, West Ham pushed forward with Cole and Modibo Maiga, who had recently joined the play in the place of Gary O’Neil. Cole squared to Maiga who saw his deflected shot creep past the Everton post. From this point on the game totally changed as Maiga caught an Everton player to give the Merseyside outfit a free kick, which as a result ended with a Victor Anichebe header in the far post net.
A few minutes later the referee made a decision that shocked all of the 35,000 fans in attendance by sending Carlton Cole off for a minor offence. The ball came from over Cole’s head; he reached he leg out and caught Leighton Baines after having won the initial challenge. The contact was evident, but it was a collision of harmless intent. Cole had the intent to win the ball, with his vision squared straight at the ball. The Everton players looked as shocked as anyone. West Ham was forced to finish the game with 10 men. This would be later compounded by a second and decisive goal from Steven Pienaar as the ball was scrambled over the line. Both sides went close in the remaining 20 minutes or so, but neither side could get the crucial goal. The game finished with the return of Jack Collison who was welcomed back onto the pitch after coming into the game via a substitute appearance. Though the game then finished with another red card for, again a poor decision where Gibson was sent off for a missed timed tackle, but had no intent to hurt the man.
The referee left the pitch having made a vital difference in the outcome. In my opinion, I thought that we didn’t deserve to win the game, though I didn’t think that Everton did enough to quite win the game. Though, both managers could agree on the fact that they both had players unjustly sent off. Which ruined a honest and well fought tie in good competitive spirits.
Interesting article, but the obvious bias isn’t really justified. West Ham didn’t lose because of the referee. They had 1 incorrect decision against them; the red card. Everton had two; the disallowed goal (which has been reviewed and it has been decided that it should have been allowed) and a red card for a very similar incident.
Overall, both sides received terrible refereeing, but even though Everton got the worst of it, they played better and deserved the win.
What about when Collins was kicked in the face at approx 32 minutes in no card or talking to by the ref so by what happened later on surely this should have been a red card also.