West ham's lee bowyer has red card overturned

By Tom Derbyshire on February 13, 2008 3:53 PM |

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THE BLUES have hit Upton Park and the Irons desperately need to improve if their season isn’t to fizzle out into a disappointing anti-climax.

But there was good news of sorts this week when the FA overturned a red card handed out to Lee Bowyer during Saturday’s (February 9) lacklustre 1-1 draw with Birmingham City.

With Birmingham scrapping for Premier League survival the game degenerated into a niggly affair, not helped by referee Mark Clattenburg’s performance. He compounded a poor afternoon by mistakenly sending off Bowyer, although that decision was overturned on Tuesday (February 12).

With Scott Parker, Craig Bellamy and James Collins among those sidelined at the moment a suspension for the industrious Bowyer would have robbed the Hammers of yet more options.

Manager Alan Curbishley admitted he was disappointed by his team’s performance on Saturday.

He said: “We started off okay and got our goal. In the first half we created some openings that perhaps we needed to take. Then it fizzled out on us. We’re really disappointed with the second-half performance.”

The highlight for Hammers’ fans was the performance of Swedish midfielder Freddie Ljungberg, who notched his first goal for the club.

“It is nice to score a goal but we’re disappointed we didn’t win the game,” Ljungberg said. “In the first half we played some really good football and could have scored some more goals. Even in the second half we created some chances. But we have to work on playing football the whole game, even if we don’t get the result.”

Curbishley thinks international commitments haven’t helped, with Matthew Upson and Lucas Neill among those in action for their countries last week.

“We’ve got one or two tired legs,” he said. “Matty’s been through a big week. Lucas arrived back at seven o’clock yesterday (Friday) morning from Melbourne, so it’s been a tough week for some of them and they looked a bit tired.”

Without a game this weekend (February 16-17), the Hammers have plenty of time to recharge their batteries. They are next in action on Saturday, February 23, when they travel across London to face struggling Fulham – not such a long journey for Neill.

(Story written by Simon Hayes)