And in sports news.......................

The Derby seems to be second to the Grand National in terms of general public awareness but to me there's something heroic about an eight stone weakling clinging tenaciously to a four legged beast travelling at forty miles an hour around  Epsom. The feeling you get as the horses pass the two furlong marker is similar to that which grips you as you watch the runners come off the final bend at the end of a middle distance race, indeed as I watched the Queen's horse Carlton House making its ultimately futile attempt to catch Pour Moi my mind replayed the Moscow Olympics and the 800 metres final as Seb Coe tried in vain to catch Steve Ovett. Yesterday, as in 1980, the winner almost celebrated too early, French jockey Mickael Barzalona stood up way before the finishing line and was almost caught by second placed Treasure Beach. For the second week in succession the English were trumped by Barza/Barcelona.

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Away from horse racing I suppose it's only right I should comment on the appointment of Sam Allardyce as our new manager. Allardyce is the six manager we've had since I started blogging eight years ago, that compares with eight in the previous one hundred and two years, certainly for a club built on tradition and continuity the times have been interesting. Opinion is divided on the appointment but beggars can't be choosers and we need to get out of the Championship (a preposterous name if there ever was) as soon as possible. I commented on a messageboard the other day that Allardyce should face down his detractors with the same words that Lou Macari used when he was appointed in 1989 when he became the club's first non-English manager. Macari was asked whether he would be keeping up the tradition of playing the 'West Ham' way, "Why"  Macari replied, "It hasn't done them much good lately."

Allardyce may have a reputation, quite wrongly in my opinion, for only being able to play one way, but his win percentage record in the Premiership would have been good enough to have kept us up if he had been appointed as late as January. The current board are a bunch of buffoons and should be removed as soon as possible, not for the appointment of Allardyce but for their general stupidity and lack of class, preferably by somebody without any connections to the club who can view the situation dispassionately and take the club upward and onward. So far the five year plan has seen three managers, one relegation and a transfer policy verging on the embarrassing.

The one good thing about being in the second tier of English football is that you are virtually invisible to the media, Sky show matches at bizarre times and the BBC picks the occasional big match for post Final Score coverage, next season we should be able to go about our business quietly and without too much fuss, a bit like the Labour party really.

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This weeks entry into the 'you couldn't make it up' section comes courtesy of the Nigeria v Argentina friendly in Abuja on Wednesday night. The record books show a 4-1 win for the home side, what they won't show are the fact that this was Argentina's second string side, the first team are at home preparing for the Copa America and being insulted in restaurants, or the bizarre refereeing decisions that have led to an investigation into what are euphemistically called 'betting ireegulairties'. 

There is a convention in modern football that in the case of some league games (below the top four divisions in England) and friendly matches (both club and country) that says matches do not have to last beyond ninety minutes where there is clearly a score that cannot be changed, its football's equivalent of the boxing referee being able to step in and stop further punishment. Wednesday night and Nigeria are leading 4-0, the fourth official indicates five minutes of added time, which alone seems bizarre, play actually continues until the 98th minute and the referee then awards a penalty to Argentina which doesn't seem justified (the ball clearly hit the defender on the thigh) and which Argentina duly score. It's the second penalty of the game and betting records apparently show a lot of movement in the market for, yes you've guessed it, two penalties. What's more intriguing is that there was a huge surge in the markets from the 86th minute onwards by punters wanting to place bets on a fifth goal when there was no indication of the players on the field that they were interested in scoring.

Given the recent scandal involving referees from the so-called smaller footballing nations you do have to wonder about the officials from Niger. The referee Ibrahim Chaibou, has officiated in more than fifty matches, is coming to the end of his career and whilst I do want want to question his integrity some of his decisions seemed a little strange.

As an aside the preparation of the home Government for the match was interesting. We are talking about a friendly where the number of supporters from the opposition could be counted on the fingers of one hand and yet more than 5,000 secuirty personnel were deployed for the match including riot police, tear gas squads, mounted troops, surveillance teams and a bomb disposal unit, all 25,000 spectators were required to enter through one end of the ground.  And to think the Met next season only have to cope with Leeds, West Ham, Brimingham, Millwall and Portsmouth in the same division!