Hammers back in Dyer straits

DAVID SULLIVAN, the West Ham co-owner, was in pleading mood before kick-off.

The club he had bought just a few weeks ago was in such dire financial straits that it was imperative for supporters to rush to the shop and buy as much claret and blue merchandise as they could carry home. And then – and he doesn’t appear to be joking here – sign up for a West Ham credit card.

This result will hardly have had the Upton Park faithful queuing round the block after the final whistle but Sullivan had already identified a scapegoat. His name is Kieron Dyer and he came on as a substitute in the 47th minute with the score 2-0 to Bolton.

For the injury-prone former England midfielder had already been shamed, if not exactly named, as a money-draining flop from the previous, profligate regime, who left the club more than €128 million in debt.

“Two players signed in the summer 2007, one of whom has since left the club, have started a combined total of 32 games and will have cost the group £34m (€38m) over the term of their contracts. No football club can sustain this level of expenditure on under-performing members of its squad,” wrote finance director Nick Igoe in the accounts, which were released a week ago.

You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to work out that Freddie Ljungberg is the man no longer there and Dyer his expensive accomplice. Sullivan had even suggested Dyer should do the decent thing and retire but the 31-year-old wanted not only to prove his doubters wrong but to make his own views public.

“If you buy a football club and you are the owners, you can say what you want,” he said. “You do want you want as you own it, as it is your business. They are entitled to their opinions.

“But everyone has forgotten that I had probably a worse leg break then Aaron Ramsay and have had four operations to try and get it right. I have put everything I can to get fit for this club but it is not enough for some people. All I can do is get my head down and I have the backing of the manager and hopefully I can get there.”

Dyer had little impact on a game that was already out of West Ham’s reach within 16 minutes of the kick-off, with first Kevin Davies and then Jack Wilshere taking advantage of poor defending to beat England goalkeeper Robert Green.

Bolton remained in control until Tamir Cohen was sent off for two yellow card offences with 19 minutes remaining. Alessandro Diamanti pulled one back two minutes from the end and substitute Junior Stanislas hit the bar in added time but anything other than an away win would have been a travesty

“We deserved it,” said Davies, the Bolton captain. “The first half was unbelievable and defensively, we were brilliant.”

Dyer didn’t disagree: “We were poor today and deserved to lose. Even though I came on for 45 minutes it was a very disappointing day. We usually start like a house on fire, get out of the traps and get in people’s faces.

“All credit to Bolton, we expected them to sit off and let us have possession of the ball and hit us on the break but they came straight for us. They were excellent today.”

West Ham now face back-to-back away trips to Chelsea and Arsenal but Dyer has not given up on manager Gianfranco Zola masterminding a late turnaround.

He said: “I still don’t think that the next two games have a bearing on whether we stay in the league or not. I still believe that it is our home games and possibly Fulham away. If we do well there we will stay in this league.”

MATCH RATING: **** – Plenty at stake and plenty to talk about, although little of it positive if you are a West Ham fan. Coyle had to win an away game somewhere and given that the Hammers usually struggle against Bolton it was perhaps no surprise that it happened here.

REFEREE: Lee Probert (Wiltshere) 6 – Received ironic cheers from the home side when a decision went their way. Eventually booked Jaaskelainen for time-wasting about an hour after giving him the first of many warnings on the subject.