Oh dearie, dearie me

Howard Webb will not have been happy with his assistant when he watched the replay of the incident that resulted in West Ham beating Blackburn today. Bobby Zamora kicks the ball from six yards; it hits Carlos Tevez, who is standing on the line in an offside position, and bounces out. And the assistant flags violently, not for an offside against Tevez, but for a goal. The Match of the Day cameras show that the ball was not even on the goal line when it hit Tevez, let alone over it and in the goal. The assistant was in line, but failed in his job. He did not assist the referee, he hindered him and got him to give an incorrect decision that had a clear effect on the outcome of the game. I'm sure the assistant will be looking very carefully at the sequence of events that persuaded him to make the wrong call.