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I've been really angry and frustrated by a lot of recent decisions which seem to be moulding our future - and almost all of them are coming out against us.
The refereeing decisions at Stoke may have been poor but lets be fair ( and I should say right from the off I am a qualified referee and coach) they were hardly suprising . Any manager watching the videos will know Upson has lapses at corners and so blocking him off is easier than Tomkins or Da Costa.Refs just aren't going to spot this as there is so much going on.
As for Piq's goal I'm still not sure where it hit, but everyone seems adamant it was handball so may be it was. The lino was too far behind play and the ref was right not to disallow it as he clearly couldn't see from 40 yards behind.
The penalty? Well you all saw Etherington talking to the ref at kick off and 12 seconds later, penalty. Was the conversation something like ''So you are the one that Tony says I have to give a penalty to?'. From then on in I just felt that the tongue-lashing that Pulis gave was still ringing loud and clear and Grant probably said nothing .
In manager terms you have to play the game, if they shout at the ref you have to respond. Grant whittles in post TV interviews but sits on his fat ass while the game is on. Judge for yourself.
The winner was a very poor goal but cheated none the less. Now I know Parker is awesome but on this he was wrong twice. First he should not have defended Cole's cowardice. He should have taken the blow in the face, much like the goal that gave him a fat lip the other week or alternatively as a centre forward he could have tried heading it, as that's part of what he's paid for. The ref was right.
However the second error - and a most uncharacteristic one - was Scotty rushing out from the middle of the wall. Despite the cheating Huth pulling Hitz to the floor, in clear view of the lino, the ball went through Scotty's bit and even slighty deflected off him. Tomkins' penalty claim was quite clear and I can't make any excuses for the ref not giving it.
I think he wasn't brilliant but I want to question Grant's record of recent decisions. Why oh why did he drop Ba? Now there is clearly something fishy going on here. Has his dicky knee suddenly caught up, which is why (against Stoke) no real reason came out of the club or was talked about?
Considering we have been flying with him in the side against a team he destroyed a week earlier this decision did two things. Firstly it stopped our momentum (and invariably meant Cole was included) but more importantly it gave their players and fans a huge lift. Now any manager worth his salt should have been able to see what it was going to do. Now if you can tell me what Cole did in the game, it was about as much as Ba and he wasn't even playing.
You just can't give Stoke any easy advantages like this and we have paid the price again for shoddy management.
Going back to St.Andrews for the Carling Cup semi final. Why, when we were on a roll with Freddie Sears playing well and contributing to the overall play did he pick sicknote Dyer and then inexpicably put him on in front of Freddie? Dyer did nothing bar miss a sitter in front of goal. Ignoring the obvious that Freddie would have scored, he would have given us better options chasing the game.
For that matter Cole was dire, as usual. One shot, a wonder goal and for the remaining ninety minutes he was useless - as has often been the case this season. When you play Cole the whole team's performance drops. He is one of only two centre forwards that don't defend from the front. He chases nothing.
Compare that to Piq or Ba and they make things happen that the midfield three can pick off and counter. Cole gives up and considering he is fit and fast, why doesn't he run?
If you check our results against when Cole plays you will see that overall he has a negative effect .His (joke) goals in the Cups and a paltry return in the Premier League indicate how poor he's been. Piq, Ba and Obinna with Freddie and even Keane should be the only forwards considered.
Going back to the Stoke game, what's all this about getting Keane fit, when he is missing for the Spurs match and likely to get injured for Eire? He would have been better not to be fit for club or country and then be ready for Man U. And what on earth did Grant say to him when he went on? He kept dropping to the halfway line when we are chasing the game. He is going to do bugger all there. When he got in the box he nearly scored. Simples.
So what other decisions have wrankled me? Well, why when we don't have a left back (until Bridge) do we have one playing regularly with Charlton? When Freddie came back from Scunny the experience of regular football made him a much better player and vital cog for a while (until sicknote came back and even then he didn't finish that match) so why couldn't Fry have done the same?
Considering Bridge's early form, he couldn't have done any worse. Why do we always start games so slowly? What do the coaches do to make them so lethargic ? Is it the warm up? We need to get early goals and we don't. I do agree with Scotty sitting on the halfway line for attacking corners (probably his idea) but again we don't score enough goals for a team with decent height in the side.
However when we defend why don't we leave someone on the halfway line? This made my blood boil when Bellamy wasn't asked to do this and Grant hasn't learned. Even if its Noble , it keeps two defenders back for them. You learn this at under 10's level so why can't we do it? Why not gamble with one of Ba, Piq or Obinna? Imagine the fear that would put up an opposition manager.The obvious action is to pull another one back, which clearly helps us.
Moving on to set pieces, I have already touched on corners - which are still too wayward - but more on attacking freekicks. When we get one there seems to be too much debate. Surely they should know who is taking it? If it's close enough to shoot then Der Hammer, if its being crossed then Noble. How hard can it be? As long as the cross or shot is on target we have enough sniffers to be getting extra goals all the time.
Now the one thing with Hammers fan is they know football. Now if I can see all these things, why can't the manager? Because you can bet plenty of West Ham fans can. I have all the dimwits up here (north of Watford) telling me how Grant has saved us, whereas I remind them that had he been sacked Martin O'Neil would have had us halfway up the table, winner of a Cup and semi finalists in another.
The refereeing decisions at Stoke may have been poor but lets be fair ( and I should say right from the off I am a qualified referee and coach) they were hardly suprising . Any manager watching the videos will know Upson has lapses at corners and so blocking him off is easier than Tomkins or Da Costa.Refs just aren't going to spot this as there is so much going on.
As for Piq's goal I'm still not sure where it hit, but everyone seems adamant it was handball so may be it was. The lino was too far behind play and the ref was right not to disallow it as he clearly couldn't see from 40 yards behind.
The penalty? Well you all saw Etherington talking to the ref at kick off and 12 seconds later, penalty. Was the conversation something like ''So you are the one that Tony says I have to give a penalty to?'. From then on in I just felt that the tongue-lashing that Pulis gave was still ringing loud and clear and Grant probably said nothing .
In manager terms you have to play the game, if they shout at the ref you have to respond. Grant whittles in post TV interviews but sits on his fat ass while the game is on. Judge for yourself.
The winner was a very poor goal but cheated none the less. Now I know Parker is awesome but on this he was wrong twice. First he should not have defended Cole's cowardice. He should have taken the blow in the face, much like the goal that gave him a fat lip the other week or alternatively as a centre forward he could have tried heading it, as that's part of what he's paid for. The ref was right.
However the second error - and a most uncharacteristic one - was Scotty rushing out from the middle of the wall. Despite the cheating Huth pulling Hitz to the floor, in clear view of the lino, the ball went through Scotty's bit and even slighty deflected off him. Tomkins' penalty claim was quite clear and I can't make any excuses for the ref not giving it.
I think he wasn't brilliant but I want to question Grant's record of recent decisions. Why oh why did he drop Ba? Now there is clearly something fishy going on here. Has his dicky knee suddenly caught up, which is why (against Stoke) no real reason came out of the club or was talked about?
Considering we have been flying with him in the side against a team he destroyed a week earlier this decision did two things. Firstly it stopped our momentum (and invariably meant Cole was included) but more importantly it gave their players and fans a huge lift. Now any manager worth his salt should have been able to see what it was going to do. Now if you can tell me what Cole did in the game, it was about as much as Ba and he wasn't even playing.
You just can't give Stoke any easy advantages like this and we have paid the price again for shoddy management.
Going back to St.Andrews for the Carling Cup semi final. Why, when we were on a roll with Freddie Sears playing well and contributing to the overall play did he pick sicknote Dyer and then inexpicably put him on in front of Freddie? Dyer did nothing bar miss a sitter in front of goal. Ignoring the obvious that Freddie would have scored, he would have given us better options chasing the game.
For that matter Cole was dire, as usual. One shot, a wonder goal and for the remaining ninety minutes he was useless - as has often been the case this season. When you play Cole the whole team's performance drops. He is one of only two centre forwards that don't defend from the front. He chases nothing.
Compare that to Piq or Ba and they make things happen that the midfield three can pick off and counter. Cole gives up and considering he is fit and fast, why doesn't he run?
If you check our results against when Cole plays you will see that overall he has a negative effect .His (joke) goals in the Cups and a paltry return in the Premier League indicate how poor he's been. Piq, Ba and Obinna with Freddie and even Keane should be the only forwards considered.
Going back to the Stoke game, what's all this about getting Keane fit, when he is missing for the Spurs match and likely to get injured for Eire? He would have been better not to be fit for club or country and then be ready for Man U. And what on earth did Grant say to him when he went on? He kept dropping to the halfway line when we are chasing the game. He is going to do bugger all there. When he got in the box he nearly scored. Simples.
So what other decisions have wrankled me? Well, why when we don't have a left back (until Bridge) do we have one playing regularly with Charlton? When Freddie came back from Scunny the experience of regular football made him a much better player and vital cog for a while (until sicknote came back and even then he didn't finish that match) so why couldn't Fry have done the same?
Considering Bridge's early form, he couldn't have done any worse. Why do we always start games so slowly? What do the coaches do to make them so lethargic ? Is it the warm up? We need to get early goals and we don't. I do agree with Scotty sitting on the halfway line for attacking corners (probably his idea) but again we don't score enough goals for a team with decent height in the side.
However when we defend why don't we leave someone on the halfway line? This made my blood boil when Bellamy wasn't asked to do this and Grant hasn't learned. Even if its Noble , it keeps two defenders back for them. You learn this at under 10's level so why can't we do it? Why not gamble with one of Ba, Piq or Obinna? Imagine the fear that would put up an opposition manager.The obvious action is to pull another one back, which clearly helps us.
Moving on to set pieces, I have already touched on corners - which are still too wayward - but more on attacking freekicks. When we get one there seems to be too much debate. Surely they should know who is taking it? If it's close enough to shoot then Der Hammer, if its being crossed then Noble. How hard can it be? As long as the cross or shot is on target we have enough sniffers to be getting extra goals all the time.
Now the one thing with Hammers fan is they know football. Now if I can see all these things, why can't the manager? Because you can bet plenty of West Ham fans can. I have all the dimwits up here (north of Watford) telling me how Grant has saved us, whereas I remind them that had he been sacked Martin O'Neil would have had us halfway up the table, winner of a Cup and semi finalists in another.
