Hammers robbed – now to crush United at UP

It’s the worst cliche in football but it is the only one we can use after the drama of Old Trafford today: “We were robbed.”

ClaretandHugh chief analyst Leroy Rosenior had said in his preview of the game the Hammers would win if there were no dodgy refereeing decisions – sadly there were and both cost us a place in the semi-final draw on our own.

Dimitri Payet’s magnificent free kick which gave us the lead was a goal worthy to win any game – Manchester United’s equaliser was a horrendous blot on the game’s landscape.

And on top of all that Marcus Rojo clearly fouled Dimi ahead of the opening goal and everybody agreed – including TV ref Howard Webb – that a penalty should have been given.

Then as the Hammers headed to what would have been a great victory, Martial hooked in from close range but only after Bastian Schweinsteiger had flattened Darren Randolph in the build-up giving him no chance of making any sort of save.

Okay it was all-action stuff but referees are paid enormous sums to get things such as those right and Martin Atkinson failed miserably when the chips were down.

However, maybe we should have had everything tied up much earlier when the ineffective Emenike fired wide in a one-on-one with De Gea and Andy Carroll saw a couple of efforts fly over the top.

United were far better than they had been at Liverpool but the Irons were more than their match for most of the game and will fancy themselves big time in the replay. So they should.

United are fragile away from home and in what will be the last ever FA Cup game under the Boleyn lights – with players coming back – we have to be favourites.

Today we showed real resilience, power, strength and flair and didn’t get our just desserts. I’m toally convinced on what I saw today it will be an entirely different story at Fortress Boleyn.