English FA Premiership/West Ham United 2 Middlesbrough 1: The only good news for Steve McClaren was that, for a change, his tactics will not come under scutiny. Angry Middlesbrough fans can instead turn their ire on Ralph Bone, a hitherto unknown referee's assistant whose error yesterday helped consign their team to defeat. Debate on Teesside about the merits of 4-4-2 and 4-5-1 will be replaced by one about goalline technology.
Bone's mistake in adjudging that the ball had crossed Boro's line in the 74th minute to give West Ham a 2-0 lead will particularly grate after Frank Queudrue scored a late goal from a corner. What might have been an equaliser, albeit an undeserved one, was not even a consolation. McClaren, who began with two strikers and ended with three, was predictably furious.
The controversy obscured the impact made by Teddy Sheringham, who came off the bench in the second half and gave West Ham the lead 48 seconds later. When the second goal went in, older West Ham minds might have drifted back to 1966, when a local hero Geoff Hurst famously benefited from a linesman's flag in the World Cup final.
"Well done the linesman," West Ham's manager Alan Pardew said of this good fortune. "Was he Russian?"
McClaren at the end was visibly upset and encouraged the use of goalline technology, given a trial at the recent Under-17 World Championship in Peru. "I am devastated by that decision," he said. "It's a big decision and the wrong decision and it's ultimately cost us the game. . . he was the only person in the stadium to see that."
Replays suggested the ball was not even close to crossing the line. Chris Riggott had inadvertently kicked a Paul Konchesky free-kick towards his own goal and Mark Schwarzer got down well to save. He failed to hold the ball but then smothered it and Middlesbrough were astonished when a goal was given.
