Premier League - Behrami gives West Ham win

Eurosport - Mon, 24 Nov 08:32:00 2008

Valon Behrami's first goal in English football has given West Ham a 1-0 win at Sunderland in the Premier League.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 Premier League West Ham Sunderland-West Ham Behrami - 0

The Swiss midfielder's 20th-minute drive took a wicked deflection off Kenwyne Jones and nestled in the top-left corner after the hosts failed to fully clear a corner.

Sunderland huffed and puffed but in truth rarely threatened Robert Green, who only made straightforward saves even though his team-mates saw very little of the ball.

The result could have been different but for Wirral referee Mike Dean's inaction on two occasions.

The first came on 34 minutes when Hammers defender James Collins pulled Djibril Cisse down on the edge of the box when he was clean through. It was a red-card offence but Dean waved play on with his assistant also failing to flag.

The contact was clear - Collins's right arm interlinked with Cisse's left - and only argument in Dean's favour is that he may have thought Cisse made the initial contact.

The second contentious incident was a handball in the area by Matthew Upson, whose left arm blocked Cisse's shot two minutes after the second-half restart.

Dean again waved play on, although this time there was no doubt as to the offence.

Sunderland had almost 60 per cent of the possession, but they used it wastefully. In an attempt to use the height of Jones and bypass West Ham's neat-passing midfield, the Black Cats pumped long balls, straight and diagonal, towards the Trinidad and Tobago hit-man.

But Collins and England star Upson were rocks at the back, the former winning most headers and the latter clever in his positioning and use of the ball.

As a result, many of the hosts' opportunities were speculative efforts from distance, although Cisse missed two headers that he should have at least got on target.

Andy Reid had a long-range effort bounce off the top of the Hammers crossbar and Phil Bardsley saw two efforts go wide, but otherwise Green was barely tested.

Despite their lack of possession, West Ham had the best chance to score following their opener when Craig Bellamy and Behrami somehow failed to find the back of the net just before half time.

Ferdinand had miscontrolled a long ball, which let Bellamy clean through. But instead of finishing past Marton Fulop, the Wales captain tried to round the Sunderland keeper and roll it into an empty net.

He only succeeded in forcing himself too wide to have a clear sight of goal and, while he cut back and created another chance to score, he opted for the 'safer' option of setting up Behrami for a simple finish into an empty net.

But the former Lazio winger somehow put his shot against the crossbar.

Aside from the incredible miss, it was an ordinary match and the second half saw few clear-cut chances.

Black Cats boss Roy Keane made three changes, bringing on El-Hadji Diouf, Carlos Edwards and Daryl Murphy, but they had little effect as West Ham clung onto a win that puts them 11th and leaves Sunderland two points above the drop zone.

Reda Maher / Eurosport

Comment 12 - 31 of 31

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  1. Cameron w . . .He sure as hell is . . only now you sound more like a ponce, what self respecting Mag would say that . . your manager is a legendary joke.

    From jack torrance, on Tue 25 Nov 2:22PM

  2. seems strange that some fans are against keane ??? where were they when he arrived ? it must be something wrong with some fans in that area ie newcastle as well want it all now , when if keane is given the time he needs and most good fans know this he will turn the club around so you be in the prem for a long time , i have watched sunderland and can say they have been unlucky , but stay with him cos if he goes you will be in the lower leagues very fast ,, i am a pompey fan and seen judas redknapp now leave us twice , and fony adams is ok he needs time so support your manager as i do with pompey we have lost silly points since he has gone , and as normal he stars well as he did with southampton , then they were relegated for the first time in over 26 years , so lets hope judas does it for spurs ,,, come on you sunderland fans get behind keeno , as we have with tony adams

    From Chris, on Tue 25 Nov 10:39AM

  3. jack torrance
    Only got one thing to say to you:
    'Keano is a legend!!!'

    From cameron w, on Mon 24 Nov 7:10PM

  4. Behrami rules (if your a west ham fan thats not me).

    From Nathan, on Mon 24 Nov 4:32PM

  5. Cameron W ARE YOU A NONCE? IT'S JUST YOU ALWAYS SOUND LIKE ONE.

    From jack torrance, on Mon 24 Nov 2:49PM

  6. tommihew - Actually not convinced by videos, but quite like the idea thats been trialed by FIFA of an extra assistant behind each goal. Might have helped yesterday.
    Incidentally this is not an excuse for losing (we needed to test their keeper more) - I just thought that Dean was hopeless for both sides yesterday.
    Cisse was a clear red card - outside the box, but ref was poorly positioned.
    Jones - was clearly pulled down for a penalty.
    Handball - one of the few decisions he got right.

    From Jonathan, on Mon 24 Nov 8:22AM

  7. Jonathan, thank you and yes too true. Its a farce not having vid replays when so much money is at stake. How many more examples need to be made before the FA and FIFA sort something out. The people running these governing bodies should be shamed out of their jobs. I think it would help refs be more relaxed and make better decisons overall if they knew they could always consult a vid replay on such big decisions.

    From Tom, on Mon 24 Nov 8:12AM

  8. west ham were average but still looking in dictionary for a word to describe the other lot

    From fixter_howard, on Mon 24 Nov 7:55AM

  9. I think Keane has got to be an inspired managerail appointment, yeah results arent going your way just now but you guys are expecting the world when frankly youve been bobbing up and down between the leagues for a good few years. Accept you arent the dogs bo**ocks as yet and accept its gonna take time for a team with so many new fces to gel and work together. Keane if given the chance will come good, and Sunderland eventually will be premiership regulars.No more fighting relegation places, the future is coming but keep faith, stop being so impatient. I hated Keane as a player but he has the right attributes to be a qualty manager. Maybe he needs an experienced back up man? Maybe he just needs time. As long as you dont get relegated this year give him another year and you'll see the slow march up the league. That im convinced about. But yeah just dont et relegated this year ahahaha.

    From Tom, on Mon 24 Nov 7:49AM

  10. How do you justify professional referees on comfortable salaries when you see performances as incompetent as today's? I can live with player's salaries, as they can do something I can't, but you could have picked from half the crowd yesterday and they would have done a better job.
    Hard to have any respect.

    From Jonathan, on Mon 24 Nov 7:05AM

  11. Is there any news on Dean Ashton's return?

    From Ronsenglish, on Mon 24 Nov 6:05AM

  12. good match..

    sunderland still have many chance..

    From arif_isateenagerboy2625, on Mon 24 Nov 3:47AM

  13. Some Keane dissension in the ranks of Blunderland per chance ?

    From art_tidesco, on Mon 24 Nov 1:24AM

  14. whats this i hear about a new contract being offered to keane,crazy plenty money made available and results are awful..from man who thought mick mccarthy was @#$% manager and abused him about it,well its not so easy now that he is in the seat.look at the young team mick has built at wolves and he never had that kind of money available at sunderland.. he is only the manager who thinks gallas was right to speak out ..ya ok within the dressingroom....he will be gone by january..probably walk out on the team again and hopefully that will be last we see and hear from him again.....

    From georgetaaffe1970, on Sun 23 Nov 11:03PM

  15. I see the natives are getting restless; 'the legend' to walk away before January - Blunderland may improve then.

    From cameron w, on Sun 23 Nov 10:45PM

  16. altai211, You are totally right. What is this "Roy Keane can do no wrong mentality"? I am totally fed up with it.
    OK he got us up from the Championship but so did Mick McCarthy (and Peter Reid for that matter). We scraped through last season and it looks like more of the same this season.
    Let me pose a question for all the Keane supporters:-
    Do you think McCarthy would have had Sunderland in a better position than they are now if he had the same money to spend?
    I am not against the man as such - I just think that like a lot of great ex pros, managerially, they just can't cut it!

    From John S, on Sun 23 Nov 10:06PM

  17. GREAT ONE GUYS KEEP IT UP

    From iceman19@..., on Sun 23 Nov 10:02PM

  18. Keano got carried away - he signed too many similiar players during the summer and now the team is all over the place.

    From Connie, on Sun 23 Nov 9:48PM

  19. altai211, you're an idiot. everyone has a bad run of games at some point, it just so happens that you support one of teh clubs in this bad spell at the moment. keane is a good manager. He's done a great job at Sunderland, you're lucky a guy like him would go somewhere like that! They're not exactly the best of clubs. when he does well, you will swallow your words and have a slice of humble pie for dinner

    From Ted, on Sun 23 Nov 9:36PM

  20. not a big zola fan.....think he needs a bigger set of balls...........that aside good defensive display....and looking forward to the january clearout, then upwards and onwards......think ashton.belamy,dyer and gabbidon are done.....but hope i'm proved wrong...also lets see some of what steve clark brought to chelsea.this aside good luck to sunderland ,they fought hard and another day would have had all the points.(everton game 4 us springs to mind)come on u irons.....pity about the lilywhites winning...stilll cant have it all

    From barry, on Sun 23 Nov 9:18PM
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