Sports Then and Now

Andy Carroll

In their recent encounter with Swansea, West Ham won by 2-0 to come out victorious, but at the cost of a red card for West Ham striker Andy Carroll.

Red Card
As a result of the red card, Carroll will now be forced to miss matches with Aston Villa, Norwich and Southampton, a fact which is certain to be playing on his mind, but also on the mind of manager Sam Allardyce, as Carroll set up both of the two goals scored against Swansea.

Similarly, having only played 5 games this season, and only 15 games in the 12 months between March 2013 and Feb 2014, many are frustrated that Carroll has only been a regular fixture a handful of times, despite the player having so much potential.

Appeal Process
The decision for the red card came in the 59th minute by referee Howard Webb, a decision which the Hammers disagreed with.  As a result, West Ham attempted to repeal the decision. In support of the appeal, manager Allardyce has stated that Webb had made an “obvious error”, but that “There has to be somebody to look at that in the cold light of day and say that is certainly not a red card”.

Therefore, the appeal went ahead, but was unfortunately dismissed by the FA under the grounds that the club could not put a panel of 3 people who could explain why the referee had made a bad decision in their decision to send the Hammer striker off after making contact with Swansea’s Flores’s head.  Read the rest of this entry →