Grant unhappy over disallowed goal

17 October 2010 09:30

West Ham boss Avram Grant felt his side were denied a legitimate goal in stoppage time against Wolves as the Londoners' search for an away win in the Barclays Premier League continued.

After Mark Noble's penalty had cancelled out Matt Jarvis' first-half opener at Molineux, Hammers frontman Frederic Piquionne thought he had netted a late winner when he put the ball past Marcus Hahnemann in the dying moments of the match. However, referee Mark Clattenburg judged that Piquionne had handled before shooting and booked the striker, with the game ending 1-1.

"All of us have seen it now on the television and we saw that it was a goal," Grant said. "Mark, in my opinion, is one of the best referees. He is a very good referee and they are human beings who make mistakes, but unfortunately it was against us and it cost us two points."

He added: "It is not the first time it has happened to us. It happened in the first game against Aston Villa, the first goal against (Manchester) United, the first goal against Bolton - all mistakes of the referee.

"Mark is a very good referee and I feel sorry about him, but more about myself."

Wolves manager Mick McCarthy, whose team stay 19th, thought Clattenburg had been harsh on Kevin Foley to give the penalty for a challenge on Victor Obinna, but correct to rule out Piquionne's strike.

"At the time I couldn't have told you what I thought about the penalty, but I have seen it since and I think it is very harsh on Foles," McCarthy said.

"I have seen the last one and I thought it was a handball at the time. I appealed for a handball because he seemed to put himself down to do it.

"I haven't seen as a good a replay for that as I did for the penalty. I think it is a real soft penalty, I really do.

"He is going down and I think he has got it wrong, but at the time I couldn't tell - I was too far away. It's wonderful when you get one of those decisions in your favour and it stinks when you don't."

Source: PA