LIVERPOOL – It’s typical in this most surprising of West Ham seasons that there are still some hardy perennials fans can rely on as (yet again) the Hammers came up short against Everton, going down 1-2 at Goodison Park on the back of a hotly disputed first goal from Romelu Lukaku.
This defeat will stick in the craw as it was a game the visitors deserved something from despite being shorn of the services of five regulars from the first team due to injuries sustained on international duty.
The announcement of the changes came as something of a shock to most supporters as the only hint of an injury prior to the game was that of Diafra Sakho.
As it was, it said much of West Ham’s improved squad that they were able to compete as well as they did.
Referee Mark Clattenburg was probably the key figure on both sides, though, allowing a undisputedly off-side goal to stand and failing to gain control in a match containing several melees, bad tackles and gamesmanship.
The worse example of that was a shocking feigned facial injury by James Tomkins which has, encouragingly, see the central defender severely castigated on the unofficial sites – many calling for a full apology from the home-grown player in an incident described as “embarrassing” by several television pundits.
The nastiness followed an earlier blatant dive by Ross Barkley and another bad tackle on Morgan Amalfitano which led Tomkins to confront perpetrator Kevin Mirallas.
The Belgian winger shoved the Hammers’ defender on the chest and Tomkins held his hands to his face as if struck. It was an unpleasant sight.
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West Ham boss Sam Allardyce claimed after the game that his players had asked Clattenburg for more protection following a bad challenge by Steven Naismith on Mark Noble which went unpunished, but saw the visiting midfielder limp off.
James McCartney’s shocking tackle on the luckless Amalfitano late in the first half incensed Allardyce and company.
All the players were involved in an unsightly scuffle, but the inevitable yellow for McCartney was equalled by a similar card for Winston Reid for confronting the Everton midfielder, which only seemed to inflame West Ham’s sense of injustice.
Although I’m broadly uncomfortable with changing the rules of a game that has been played quite successfully in a league format for well over a hundred years, sometimes it’s interesting to speculate might happen if the 10 minute sin-bin idea were implemented for differing levels of infringement.
Certainly in this game it’s likely a series of players would have been trooping off and back on again.
Allardyce changed his formation after the break and brought on Mauro Zarate for the ineffectual Carlton Cole and the Hammers looked a more enterprising outfit with the Argentinean playing up front alongside Andy Carroll.
Zarate’s deserved equaliser – although it took a huge deflection off Phil Jagielka – just before the hour mark was cancelled out by Leon Osman’s 73rd minute winner.
As it was Osman’s 400th game for Everton, there was a further sense that the stars were aligned for the home side.
Certainly that will be the feeling for Allardyce, who was incensed by the decision to allow the opening goal to stand.
Intriguingly, Allardyce indicated afterwards that Clattenburg had explained why the goal was legal, but Allardyce refused to reveal what he was told until he had consulted the professional game match officials, suggesting that the Hammers’ boss was unsure if there was a rule he had misinterpreted.
It will be fascinating to find out – an attempted shot ballooned off a West Ham defender before falling to Lukaku who was just coming back from a previous attack – it’s difficult to imagine what interpretation the linesman has on that.
West Ham return home next week and will be hoping to get some of their injured players back for the game against Newcastle as most of them were hugely missed against the Toffees.
Ultimately, at least the Irons can put this result behind them until the last game of the season.
– ESPNFC
