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Slaven Bilic refused to criticise referee Craig Pawson following West Ham United's 3-3 draw against Arsenal on Saturday for fear of sounding "ridiculous".

Bilic - whose team were denied a deserved three points by yet more contentious decisions - has always been uncomfortable using his press conferences to castigate officials for their shortcomings. And it's probably just as well he opted not to examine Pawson's mistakes, as those of us in attendance may have been there all night otherwise!

Pawson - like Bobby Madley at Stamford Bridge and Martin Atkinson at Old Trafford in the weeks preceding this highly-anticipated London derby - gave virtually every 50/50 decision in favour of the visitors, including three crucial goal-related decisions that altered the course of the game.

The 36-year-old official - who was jeered off the pitch at the final whistle, much like Mark Clattenburg following the clash with Crystal Palace last weekend - ruled out a perfectly good Manuel Lanzini goal, allowed a marginally-offside Mesuit Ozil strike to stand before overturning a Dimitri Payet effort as punishment for Andy Carroll committing a foul (that was a 50/50 challenge) moments before in the build-up.

Pawson's erratic performance left Bilic and around 35,000 West Ham supporters fuming, and wondering just what could have been had the PGMOL's 'finest' performed both fairly and adequately this season.




By rights, West Ham should already be in the semi finals of the FA Cup (instead of facing a replay against Manchester United on Wednesday night) and in the top four of the Premier League - a position denied them as a result of a string of mystifyingly-poor calls.

And when former Tottenham star Gary Lineker - no great fan of the Hammers - suggests on Match of the Day that Bilic and his players have every right to feel hard done by, you know it's not simply paranoia that leads one to wonder if everything is above board here.

Sadly Pawson's shortcomings overshadowed what proved to be a thrilling London derby, the last in Upton Park and one that will be fondly remembered for Andy Carroll's stunning hat-trick - almost certainly the last ever to be scored in a competitive fixture at the Boleyn.

Unsurprisingly, the goal-fest led to renewed calls for Carroll to be reintroduced to the England squad, who are preparing for this summer's European Championships in France. You may get all your Euro 2016 news at Bethut.co.uk.

Whilst I'm clearly biased, there is nobody in this country as adept in the air as the big, likeable Geordie and it'd be a smart move by Roy Hodgson to take him along.




However having seen the likes of Aaron Cresswell and the in-form Mark Noble continuously denied a crack at the national team by the myopic Hodgson, I - and thousands of fellow West Ham fans - won't be holding our breath...

* An abridged version of this article first appeared in the Echo newspaper.

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