West Ham 0 West Brom 0:THIS WAS no night to be a manager at the Boleyn Ground. While Gianfranco Zola muttered in frustration at a performance to drain momentum from West Ham's season and Tony Mowbray contemplated a tedious stalemate that has done little to enhance West Bromwich Albion's chances of survival, Fabio Capello departed this arena numbed and potentially stripped of a centre-half.
Matthew Upson did not last the first half-hour of a dreadful contest that must serve as a reminder of the mishmash this division occasionally throws up.
The English FA may scrutinise Jonas Olsson’s aerial challenge on home goalkeeper Robert Green seven minutes after the interval which floored the England international but drew no sanction from referee Mark Halsey. It might have been forgotten had the game offered any quality as a distraction.
Instead, Mowbray might just wonder whether his side have belatedly mustered a mean streak.
West Ham had won their last two fixtures but a training break in Marbella since their last success, at Wigan, seemed to have disrupted their rhythm.
They had lost their last remaining experienced centre-half Upson on a stretcher by the time they retired goalless and infuriated at the interval, with discontent welling in the stands.
The assumption had been that the Baggies were there for the taking yet, aside from a header from Lucas Neill and a shot from Freddie Sears, the hosts mustered little of note to lance the tension. Passes were overhit, drifting into touch or straight to grateful opponents. Better sides would have capitalised on such inadequacies.
It said much that Luis Boa Morte, so often booed by his own here, was cheered ironically when introduced late on. There was needed humour to be had in that.
WEST HAM: Green, Neill, Tomkins, Upson (Spector 29), Ilunga, Noble (Boa Morte 82), Kovac, Parker, Nsereko (Stanislas 68), Di Michele, Sears. Subs not used: Lastuvka, Lopez, Tristan, Payne. Booked: Nsereko.
WEST BROM: Carson, Zuiverloon, Martis, Olsson, Robinson, Morrison (Filipe Teixeira 88), Koren, Dorrans, Greening, Brunt (Simpson 80), Fortune (Moore 80). Subs not used: Kiely, Hoefkens, Cech, Bednar. Booked: Olsson.
Referee: Mark Halsey (Lancashire).
