Game 2 – Sunderland v West Ham

The second game of the afternoon:

As I type this Sunderland are pushing for an equaliser, being 1-0 down with nearly 70 minutes gone. Roy Keane will be aggrieved if its stays this way – Sunderland should have had two penalties in the first half, both denied by Mike Dean. The first was the manhandling of Kenwyne Jones as a set piece was delivered – it would have take courage from the ref to give it, but it was man-handling, James Collins was pulling, tugging, climbing – and thus it should have been a penalty. As Footballsup bangs on about, you need to solve these problems from the ground up. Make an example of these insidious cheats, and the penalty box will be a lot cleaner for it.

The second, when perhaps the referee’s view was blocked and therefore the blame lies with the linesman, was a foul on Djibril Cisse when he was clean through on goal; replays show that the defender, again James Collins, pulled at his shirt, grabbed his shoulder, fouled him. The officials have let the same defender get away with two penalty offences in the same game. Its infuriating – no wonder defenders think they can get away with murder if the officiating is so weak. This malaise then spreads to attackers, who think weak refs will not penalise a dive; it really needs to be improved. I’m not sure how video refereeing would work exactly, but in these situations, if a 4th referee sees a clear offence that the ref/linesman has missed, could the game not be brought back and the offence penalised?

I doubt Roy Keane will be too happy if it stays like this, Sunderland have had the best of it (Andy Reid hitting the bar included) and with better refereeing could be leading.

West Ham have not keep consecutive clean sheets since September 2007 – what price them holding on for the last 15 minutes?

Incidentally, El Hadji-Diouf looks like he’s done nothing but eat since his last appearance. He now rivals Andy Reid in the fatness stakes. Djibril Cisse is a clear leader in the terrible hair stakes.

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5 mins to go – West Ham still lead 1-0, Zola looks anxious, Keane looks scarily angry…

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Into the final minute, plus stoppages; will the officials bottling it be the deciding factor in this game?

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4 minutes stoppage time!

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Roy Keane looks broodily murderous. Perhaps through fear, Sunderland have a great record of scoring late. Can they pull something out today?

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Last minute….

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And that’s it. West Ham take all 3 points, Sunderland will be aggrieved – and the referee bottled it. Collins would have to have gone if the Cisse foul was given – I’m sure that was a factor in his mind. The Sky commentators are calling it great, courageous West Ham defending – I call it cheating.