West Ham lose 4-0 to Tottenham in Premier League clash

By Simon Hayes on March 10, 2008 11:28 AM |

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West Ham's dismal recent run continued as they slumped to their third consecutive 4-0 defeat.

Sunday's (March 9) rout at White Hart Lane was particularly hard for Hammers' fans, who were looking for their team to bounce back from similar heavy beatings at the hands of Chelsea and Liverpool respectively.

Two goals from Dimitar Berbatov and one apiece from Gilberto and Darren Bent saw off Alan Curbishley's men, with Luis Boa Morte's sending off compounding their misery.

Curbishley was furious with referee Chris Foy - confronting him at half-time and at the final whistle - for awarding the free kick that led to Spurs first goal and then playing more than the two minutes of added time at the end of the game.

He said: "I think Berbatov, who's six foot three, fell over right near me [for the free kick] and I could see him falling in stages. I just think they [referees] spend all week on this and that and looking at videos and perhaps they've got to realise one or two things that are going on.

"He's chested the ball down and fallen over in three stages. I was very disappointed with the free kick but I'm obviously more disappointed when he gets a free header and the fella who's marking him is nowhere to be seen. That's a bigger disappointment."

That West Ham player was Anton Ferdinand although the defensive performance as a whole was poor, as Curbishley acknowledged.

He said: "You can't allow centre forwards to have free headers. He got the first one and then followed it up with another. The professionalism and the things that have got us where we are, we're not used to letting these sort of goals in. We've got to stop letting them in first before we can do anything. As I say it's a long way back for us."

Up front the Irons mustered very little in the way of their own attacking threat, with Dean Ashton and the fit-again Bobby Zamora getting precious little service. Having drawn a blank in their last three games - and only scoring six goals in 12 games in 2008 - there's been little to cheer Hammers' fans recently.

The defeat means Spurs are now five points behind West Ham with nine games to play and with the season drawing to a close the Irons' hopes of clinching a UEFA cup spot are starting to look remote.

simon.hayes@wharf.co.uk