Hammers boss hasn’t lost taste for Carling

WEST HAM manager Alan Curbishley insists he has not fallen out of love with the Carling Cup despite Kieron Dyer’s horrific leg break at Bristol Rovers.

The Hammers won 2-1 at the Memorial Ground thanks to two Craig Bellamy goals but Curbishley described the victory as “immaterial” compared to the loss of midfielder Dyer, who had only just joined from Newcastle in a £6million deal.

West Ham confirmed yesterday that the England midfielder fractured his tibia and fibula in a challenge with Rovers’ Joe Jacobson, although the likely duration of his spell on the sidelines will not be known until the first round of surgery is carried out.

Curbishley accused winger Jacobson of deliberately “lashing out” at Dyer, although the challenge was punished with merely a free-kick by referee Mike Jones.

Rovers manager Paul Trollope, meanwhile, was so convinced television footage would back up his belief it had been an accident that he felt no need to watch it again.

He said: “West Ham have video analysis that they have looked at in super slow motion but I can honestly say I don’t need to see it.

“Alan didn’t say anything to me directly. It is the view in their camp but no-one else is sharing that view.”

Striker Richard Walker, who helped set up a consolation goal for substitute Andy Williams, revealed that Jacobson would try to get a message to Dyer.

He said: “I’m sure he will write him a letter or give him a phone call to wish him all the best and once everyone has seen it on telly they will know it was a complete accident.

“West Ham are trying to make more of it than it is but there was definitely no intent there from what I saw.

“It was an accidental clash. Obviously it was a bad injury for him and he must be the unluckiest man in football but it is one of those things that happen all the time.’’