Daily WHUFC News - 28th December 2012

Cole red card rescinded
WHUFC.com
Carlton Cole has had his sending-off against Everton overturned by an FA
Regulatory Panel
27.12.2012

Carlton Cole has had the red card he was shown in West Ham United's 2-1 home
Barclays Premier League defeat by Everton on Saturday 22 December rescinded.
A Football Association Regulatory Commission reviewed the incident and the
evidence submitted by the Club on Thursday before deciding to overturn the
sending-off and withdraw Cole's three-match ban. The Commission accepted the
club's successful claim for wrongful dismissal. The striker, who will now be
available to face Reading at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday, was initially
shown the red card by the referee Anthony Taylor after he accidentally
caught Everton left-back Leighton Baines with his boot as he tried to
control a high ball. An FA statement confirmed: "The FA can confirm that red
cards shown to both Carlton Cole and Darron Gibson have been rescinded. Both
players were sent from the field of play in the Premier League fixture
between West Ham United and Everton at Upton Park on Saturday 22 December.
Their three match suspensions have been withdrawn immediately and written
reasons will be provided at a later date."

Hammers manager Sam Allardyce welcomed the decision and the boost that
Cole's availability will give to his squad over the busy New Year period. He
told whufc.com: "I am delighted that we have probably got a bit of justice
as it deserved to be turned around. There was never any doubt in my mind.
While you can say the foot was high, it was a genuine attempt and Carlton
kept his eye on the ball. It's a really good outcome for us. "The way he is
playing at the moment, he would have been a massive loss for us. He's been
outstanding up front for us since Andy Carroll got injured and we didn't
want to miss a player of so much importance for these three very important
games - Reading away, Norwich City at home and a big FA Cup third-round tie
with Manchester United.
"To have experienced Premier League players available is always very
important at this time of year. This is the tough time mentally for players,
as well as physically, but the mental side has to be the strongest to get
some results. To have him back and available is a big boost for us."

While Big Sam was naturally delighted to have last season's top scorer
available for selection for Saturday's game at the Royals, he admitted to
feeling slight frustration at losing the striker while the scores were still
level against Everton. "I believe we lost what would have at least been a
point. I am convinced that we wouldn't have lost the game against Everton if
we'd had Carlton on the field and it had eleven against eleven. "The game
was in the balance and the balance of play went away from us as the home
team when we went down to ten men and we couldn't withstand Everton's
attacking force, which is difficult enough to handle with eleven men."

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Everton's Darron Gibson & West Ham's Carlton Cole win appeals
BBC.co.uk

Everton and West Ham have successfully persuaded the Football Association to
overturn the red cards given to Darron Gibson and Carlton Cole last week.
Midfielder Gibson was dismissed by referee Anthony Taylor for a challenge on
West Ham's Mark Noble in Everton's 2-1 win at Upton Park on 22 December.
And Hammers striker Cole, sent off in the same game, is free to play in West
Ham's game at Reading on 29 December. Gibson will be available for Everton's
home game with Chelsea the next day. A statement on the FA website said:
"The FA can confirm that red cards shown to West Ham United's Carlton Cole
and Everton's Darron Gibson have been rescinded. "Their three-match
suspensions have been withdrawn immediately. "Written reasons will be
provided at a later date."

Cole was sent off for a challenge on Everton left-back Leighton Baines. Cole
wrote on Twitter afterwards: "Great news that the red card got overturned,
@FA done a great job. Well done! Time to make all the aggro worth it on
Saturday if selected!" Everton manager David Moyes and West Ham counterpart
Sam Allardyce made it clear after last week's game that they were unhappy
with the dismissals. Moyes said: "I didn't think either were red cards and
we'll appeal. I'll have a word with Sam about appealing as well." And
Allardyce added: "It had a massive effect but we will appeal immediately."

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Benayoun leaves West Ham
KUMB.com
Filed: Thursday, 27th December 2012
By: Staff Writer

Yossi Benayoun had cut his season-long loan spell short and returned to
parent club Chelsea. The Israeli international moved to West Ham on deadline
day of the last summer transfer window after Chelsea agreed to waive a large
chunk of the 32-year-old's salary, thought to be in the region of
£90,000-per-week.
However he is returning to Stamford Bridge just half way through his
season-long spell back in east London having failed to recover from an
injury sustained during the 1-0 win at Newcastle at the beginning of
November. Speaking via Twitter tonight, Benayoun confirmed that he was
cutting short his spell at the Boleyn Ground. "Recovering slowly from the
injury," he said, adding: "my loan with West Ham will be finished in a few
days; so disappointed that I didn't take part in the last games."

The number 15's second spell at West Ham saw him feature in just six games,
whilst he remained on the field for a full 90 minutes on just two occasions.

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Carlton Cole's red card scratched
KUMB.com
Filed: Thursday, 27th December 2012
By: Staff Writer

Carlton Cole is back in the frame for the trip to Reading this weekend after
the red card he received during the 2-1 home defeat to Everton was
rescinded.
It was one of the craziest decisions ever made by a referee at the Boleyn
last weekend when match official Anthony Taylor took great delight in
issuing Cole with a red card after his high boot clipped Leighton Baines
midway through the second half of the game, which stood at 1-1 at the time.
But common sense has prevailed with the news this afternoon that the FA's
appeal panel have overturned Taylor's rash and quite ridiculous decision.
"The FA can confirm that red cards shown to both Carlton Cole and Darron
Gibson have been rescinded," read an FA statement. "Both players were sent
from the field of play in the Premier League fixture between West Ham United
and Everton at Upton Park on Saturday, 22nd December. Their three match
suspensions have been withdrawn immediately and written reasons will be
provided at a later date."

The news was warmly welcomed by the big striker who said via Twitter: "Great
news that the red card got overturned, FA done a great job. Well done! Time
to make all the aggro worth it on Saturday if selected!"

Yet despite the good news, Sam Allardyce was still annoyed that, in his
opinion, the loss of Cole cost his team the match and all three points for
which there is no recourse. "I believe we lost what would have at least been
a point," he told whufc.com. "I am convinced that we wouldn't have lost the
game if we'd had Carlton on the field and it was eleven against eleven. "The
game was in the balance and the balance of play went away from us as the
home team when we went down to ten men and we couldn't withstand Everton's
attacking force, which is difficult enough to handle with eleven men."

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Wonders will never cease: Carlton is indestructable
KUMB.com
Filed: Thursday, 27th December 2012
By: Paul Walker

Ok Carlton Cole, now is the time to go out and give Reading hell to justify
all the fuss about your unjust red card against Everton last weekend.

Wonders will never cease. We actually had an FA hearing that did not hide
behind some obtuse, high-handed disciplinary mumbo-jumbo - usually the norm
- they binned the red cards of both Cole and Everton's Darron Gibson for
similar offences, in which opponents were caught by a high boot.

They didn't even do what I expected and reduce the card from red to yellow.
By deciding to rescind both cards and quash the three-match bans, they told
Cheshire referee Anthony Taylor , that he was totally wrong to give out the
red cards in the first place. That his interpretation of the laws was wrong.

You don't often get such an obvious slap-down for a referee, the FA tend to
bend over backwards to support their officials, it's a hard enough job
without the whole world telling you that a decision is wrong.

But it also means that the referee in this case has cost West Ham points, no
question. We were drawing 1-1 at the time of Cole's red card, and from the
moment he went off we were doomed. Everton soon took the lead, and were able
to hang onto victory.

Who can tell what the outcome would have been had we had 11 men on the pitch
including our in-form striker. Even if Everton had scored, we would have had
a very good chance of grabbing an equaliser. So thanks Mr. Taylor, you
ruined my day, Cole's day and over 30,000 West Ham fans' day, as well as our
Christmas.

But at least justice was done. Cole (or Andy Carroll) is such a vital part
of big Sam's system, we can all see that now, that without him at Reading,
the structure of the side and the tactics would have been very different.

And don't we owe them one. Last season Reading did the double over us, and
both games really hurt. Their gamesmanship in the first game at the Madejski
ended with two of our lot sent off and a considerable amount of bad feeling
aimed at Jimmy Kebe for the disrespectful taunting that saw Jack Collison
lose his rag and clatter the winger. Frankly, I'd have done the same thing.

It is somewhat ironic that Collison may well start Saturday's match after a
very long lay-off with injury. He got on for the final minutes against
Everton, but I bet he is desperate to get out there on Saturday for a bit of
revenge.

In the return, in the back end of March, Reading produced a clever smash and
grab raid to secure a 4-2 win at the Boleyn which we all felt had seriously
damaged our promotion chances. It probably meant Reading were promoted
outright and we had to go through the play-offs with all the stress that
incurred.

Certainly our defending that day was juvenile and suicidal. As was the
performance in Berkshire last December. Please no repeat lads.

Now is the chance for us to get our own back. Reading still have to play us
twice this term and no doubt believe they can get something from both games
to aid their increasingly desperate relegation battle. They are 13 points
behind us and see this one as a must-win game.

Now with our confidence boosted by Cole's reprieve, we must not let that
happen. A result at Reading and a home win over Norwich on New Years Day
will go a long way to redressing the balance of losing six points from two
successive winnable home games.

Come on Carlton, prove you are indestructible!

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Consistency ruined
KUMB.com
Filed: Thursday, 27th December 2012
By: Paul Walker

Anthony Taylor did his best to ruin my Christmas… Carlton Cole's too… and
the FA compounded the problem with their long-winded reaction to big Sam's
appeal against that shocking red card that probably cost us victory against
Everton last weekend.

The Cheshire referee confounded everyone with his trigger-happy red card
against Cole, and then again for a similar - if probably worse - offence by
Darron Gibson in the final minutes.

The FA normally handle such appeals with a speed of light these days, but
they clearly don't have a Christmas duty team set-up. It meant Gibson could
play against Wigan on Boxing Day, and that can't be right.

Maybe I'm sounding a bit mean about the dear old FA administrators. But when
I was working, in effect in the football industry, I had to work all over
the holidays. No complaint, that was what the job was.

The FA are in charge of a multi-billion pound industry, but can shutdown
over Christmas, leaving all appeals pending until the Thursday. The appeals
paperwork had to be in by 1pm on Monday, why couldn't the panel sit that
afternoon so everyone could be put out of their misery?

Taylor's decision was slammed by virtually every pundit/ former player there
is. Chris Kamara, Steve Claridge, Alan Shearer, Roberto Martinez and Malky
McKay all ridiculed the decision.

They were on about there being 'no intent', and he touched the ball first.
Whatever. Such universal condemnation will surely mean the FA will find a
way to back their man.

Most papers condemned the decision too. Although the Times' Alyson Rudd
produced a pedantic piece suggesting that managers want consistency from
referees, and that's what they got. And it should be left to referees to
decide how dangerous the challenge was.

All I can say to that is that having watched the Aston Villa vs Spurs game
on Boxing Day, there was a challenge from Emmanuel Adebayo's jump and
neck-high lunge that caught Villa's Ciaran Clark in the face, and referee
Mark Clattenburg just awarded a free-kick. No yellow or red card there. So
much for consistency.

The problem is that the ruling that had trapped Cole is virtually the same
one that governs studs-up challenges and two footed tackles with both feet
off the ground, which the rule makers now consider a 'danger to opponents.'

There is no mention of intent or touching the ball first, it's only about
whether the referee considers the incident a danger to an opponent. So the
FA tend to find some high-morale ground support for their official in such
circumstances.

It still means that Big Sam has had to wait until two days before a crucial
match at Reading to know who is available for selection.

I must admit to being as angry as I can remember after Cole's red card. Two
sympathetic Everton fans on the tube back to Euston were well-meaning, but
then they had the three points.

It wasn't really for a couple of days did my reactions become more rational.
And what I was really angry about was the loss of six crucial points from
winnable positions in successive home games. And the fact that how our team
reacted to such adversity that really bothered me.

This is an unforgiving, cruel division. Unforgiving because those six points
are lost forever, and we could have won both games. Cruel, because Liverpool
and Everton were savagely quick to punish us.

When Mo Diame was carried off with us leading against Liverpool, our team
froze. Substitute James Tomkins was way out of position for the equaliser,
and maybe Gary O'Neil, a tackling scuffling midfielder, would have been
better in the circumstances.

Then when Cole departed, again our side were seriously effected, and again
our reaction to a problem was poor. Everton were full of sympathy and John
Heitinga even escorted Cole to the line with his arm around the shoulder of
our distraught striker.

Then Everton kept the ball for much of the closing minutes, although Kevin
Nolan missed a great chance to snatch an equaliser right in front of a
stunned Bobby Moore lower.

Those six extra points would have given our club a very different
perspective going into the January transfer window. We would have been on 29
points and heading for safety. Players are more happy to join clubs in such
a situation than if they are in the relegation zone.

Only big wages and opt-out clauses should relegation follow get players to
even consider moving to strugglers.

About the only good thing about the week is that so many other results went
for us. While we were losing to Everton, all the bottom five lost, which
meant the gap between us and the relegation zone stayed at eight points.

Then on Boxing Day almost the same thing happened, with just Southampton and
Reading picking up points from the bottom group, so we still stayed eight
points above safety.

But we must stop thinking we are outside the relegation battle. We have won
two of our last ten and collected nine points from what we all knew was a
very tough run on games.

We also knew the opening bunch of matches were a comfortable re-introduction
to the top flight, and we took advantage of that. The second batch were much
more difficult.

Now we have Reading, Norwich, QPR and Sunderland as our next four league
games, and people always say you survive on your results against teams
around you in the table. Well, this is that moment.

Sam is making noises about needing money and re-enforcements, and talking of
the £65m clubs will get next season. That differs slightly from Karen
Brady's comment that the increase will be about £15m on what clubs currently
get.

The point though is that everything depends on staying up. Signings, new
stadiums, paying off Sheffield United, our whole future. I doubt the Davids
could handle another relegation.

So they have to gamble now, find the money and let Sam make sure we have the
resources to stay up. And Sam knows, this, he is in a strong position
because we dare not waste what has been a decent start to our campaign.

But we still need 17 points minimum from 20 matches. That's not really much
different from our current haul of 23 from 18 games. So although the Chelsea
victory gave us all so much belief, we are not safe yet.

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Darron Gibson and Carlton Cole dismissals overturned
Last Updated: December 27, 2012 6:31pm
SSN

A disciplinary panel has rescinded the dismissals of Carlton Cole and Darron
Gibson at West Ham on Saturday. Referee Anthony Taylor showed each a
straight red card for a high tackle during Everton's 2-1 win at the Boleyn
Ground. West Ham striker Cole walked for catching Leighton Baines, and
Taylor evened up the numbers late in the game after visiting midfielder
Gibson challenged Mark Noble. Both would have served three-match suspensions
if appeals to the Football Association had proved unsuccessful. But Gibson
will now be available for Sunday's Sky Live game against Chelsea, provided a
thigh injury suffered against Wigan on Boxing Day does not keep him out. And
Cole is likely to lead his side's attack at Reading on Saturday. Cole
tweeted: "Great news that the red card got overturned, @fa done a great job.
Well done! Time to make all the aggro worth it on Saturday if selected!"

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Cole vow after joy at appeal
By ANDREW DILLON
Published: 27th December 2012
The Sun

CARLTON COLE has vowed to "make all the aggro worth it" after winning his
red-card appeal. The West Ham striker yesterday had his controversial
sending-off against Everton rescinded by the FA. Cole, 29, was dismissed for
a high tackle on Leighton Baines deemed to be dangerous by ref Anthony
Taylor — a decision slammed by boss Sam Allardyce. The player, who will now
be available for tomorrow's clash at Reading, tweeted: "Great news that the
red card got overturned, @FA done a great job. "Well done! Time to make all
the aggro worth it on Saturday if selected!"

Allardyce insisted justice had been done, although the decision had robbed
his side of victory. He said: "I am delighted we have probably got a bit of
justice as it deserved to be turned around. "There was never any doubt in my
mind. The way he is playing at the moment it would have been a massive loss
for us. "He's been outstanding for us since Andy Carroll got injured and we
didn't want to miss a player of his importance for the next three very
important games — Reading away, Norwich at home and a big Cup tie against
Manchester United. "To have experienced Premier League players available at
this time of year is very important. "This is a tough time for players
mentally and physically but the mental side has to be the strongest to get
the results." Everton midfielder Darron Gibson, who was also sent off for a
high tackle in the clash last Saturday, had his offence scrubbed out as
well.

YOSSI BENAYOUN has confirmed his loan spell with West Ham will finish at the
end of December and he is set to return to Chelsea. The Israeli midfielder,
32, only started four games for the Hammers and has been ruled out with a
knee injury picked up against Newcastle in November.

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High-boot duo have red cards scrapped
The Sun
Published: 27th December 2012

WEST HAM and Everton have succeeded in their appeals against red card
victims Carlton Cole and Darron Gibson in last Saturday's match at Upton
Park. Cole was dismissed by referee Anthony Taylor during Everton's 2-1 win
for a high tackle on Toffees defender Leighton Baines. Gibson was also
dismissed for a similar tackle on Hammers captain Mark Noble later on.
Everton lodged their appeal with the Football Association on Christmas Eve,
meaning Gibson was able to face Wigan on Boxing Day. Cole will now be
available to play in West Ham's Premier League match at Reading on Saturday.
A statement from the FA said: "The FA can confirm that red cards shown to
both Carlton Cole and Darron Gibson have been rescinded. "Both players were
sent from the field of play in the Premier League fixture between West Ham
United and Everton at Upton Park on Saturday 22 December. "Their three-match
suspensions have been withdrawn immediately and written reasons will be
provided at a later date."

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WEST HAM BOSS SAM ALLARDYCE SEES RED
Daily Star
28th December 2012 By Adrian Kajumba

FURIOUS Sam Allardyce accused blunder referee Anthony Taylor of costing his
side vital points after Carlton Cole's red card was overturned. Taylor sent
off both West Ham striker Cole and Everton midfi elder Darron Gibson in the
Toffees' 2-1 win at Upton Park on Saturday. But the FA ruled Taylor got
both decisions wrong and rescinded the two dismissals after appeal and
scrapped the duo's three-game bans Hammers star Cole – now available for
tomorrow's Reading clash – saw red for a high challenge on Leighton Baines
with 23 minutes left. Allardyce said: "I believe we lost what would have at
least been a point. I am convinced that we wouldn't have lost the
gameagainst Everton if we'd had Carlton on the field and it had remained 11
against 11. "I am delighted that we have probably got a bit of justice as it
deserved to be turned around. "While you can say the foot was high, it was a
genuine attempt and Carlton kept his eye on the ball. It's a really good
outcome for us." Everton appealed Gibson's red card for a similar
90th-minute challenge on West Ham's Mark Noble on Christmas Eve. That left
the Republic of Ireland star free to play in the Toffees' Boxing Day win
over Wigan and he is now clear to continue after his ban was quashed.

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