West Ham 1 City 0 - the law's an ass.

Another an away trip, and another empty haul but a game in which Stuart Pearce commented that we deserved a point if not all three from.

West Ham's goal was a poor piece of defending from start to finish as it began with a throw for the Hammers deep in their half which somehow saw Dunne and Distin dragged way out of out of position - although credit Zamora for holding Distin superbly. Ben Thatcher somehow managed to pull sell himself a superb dummy to allow Newton to hit home the only goal of the game.

The main talking point from the game though was the two 'goals' which we had disallowed for offside. The concensus from the 'experts' who analysed the game on TV was that it was correct to disallow Micah Richards goal but Vassell's was harshly chalked off.

There is no question Vassell's should have stood as he was clearly level with the last defender Danny Gabbidon when he turned the ball home so that was plainly an error on the part of the referees assistant.

Micah Richards was a different story and centres around the was he/wasn't he active ruling. When Sinclair shot (and I'm still not sure how he managed to get the ball in the net after scuffing it so badly) Richards was marginally offside, and would have been better advised to leave the ball alone. However, he is a young lad and was obviously keen to try and earn another goal bonus.

From the camera angles I have seen on the TV replays though, Richards failed to get a touch until the ball had crossed the line so he wasn't active in the play as he has not impeded the path of either the defence or the goalkeeper, in a nutshell meaning Sinclair has shot on goal, the ball has gone directly in the net so there is no question the goal should stand.

Fast forward twenty-four hours to the Blackburn v Liverpool game and the winning goal is again a controversial one and one I think even more so than either of our disallowed goals. Djibril Cisse was about five yards off side when the ball gets played to him and he goes to control the ball, but realising he is offside (and that Morientes is there running on to the ball) cleverly allows the ball to run, resulting in Morientes to square for Fowler to slot home another goal (another story in itself...). The 'official word' from the referee was that it was not deemed offside as Cisse had not got a touch to the ball in the build up to the goal.

A perhaps harsh 1-0 reverse probably sums up ours and West Hams respective fortunes since the FA Cup meeting and now leaves us kicking out heels a little for over a week until we travel to a happy hunting ground in Villa Park.