Curbs keeps a low profile

9:00pm Sunday 4th May 2008

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Having admitted that he would "raise a glass" if Manchester United won the Premier League title, Alan Curbishley is highly likely to be able to do just that after his West Ham team subsided to defeat at Old Trafford.

Curbishley, who also claimed it would be an "injustice" if the Red Devils failed to retain the trophy in his weekly newspaper column, will no doubt be disappointed with the way his players allowed Sir Alex Ferguson's men to complete a routine 4-1 victory.

But, no doubt seething not only with his own team but also the media reaction to his ill-advised comments, the Hammers manager was nowhere to be seen at the post-match press conference.

Instead, assistant Mervyn Day was the proverbial lamb to the slaughter, with the former Irons goalkeeper forced to bat away a host of difficult questions surrounding his boss's pre-match thoughts.

Why, Day was asked, was he sitting in front of the media instead of his boss?

"Alan asked me to do it for him and I'm quite happy to do that," Day said manfully.

"You'd have to ask him that as and when you see him. I can't comment on that.

"That's basically for you to interpret who you want. He's asked me to come and do the press conference for him, which I have done for him in the past, and that's as far as I know."

Next, Day was asked if Curbishley regretted his comments.

"If I can paraphrase him he felt that Man U felt that they would have been unlucky if they didn't win the league, given the fact they have been so far in front and so dominant at a certain period in time," he explained, or at least tried to explain on behalf of the absent Curbishley.

"I didn't think he actually said or was quoted as saying he wanted them to win."

"I think it's not raising a glass to United. I think the whole essence of that piece was about Alex Ferguson and what a good and competent job he's done over a long, long period of time.

"If I'm going to interpret it, which is my interpretation and not Alan's, then that's how I'd interpret it.

"He thinks an awful lot of Sir Alex but we're all professional and that goes out the window as soon as you cross the white line."

Unfortunately, when his players did cross the white line, they were their own worst enemies.

For the Reds' first and last goals, scored by Ronaldo and Michael Carrick, the Irons' defence retreated too far before deflections took the ball past a helpless Robert Green.

For their second, converted by Ronaldo's groin, James Tomkins' made a complete mess of his headed clearance.

And Day was big enough to admit that the Hammers had simply not played well enough to stop United.

"It was poor defending. We've backed off too much instead of confronting people," he conceded.

"When you get someone like Ronaldo running at you, it's very easy to say Go out and confront him', but you're always wary of a little stepover beating you and creating a shooting angle.

"We defended too deep on the first goal, we acknowledge, but it still took a deflection.

"The Carrick goal we might have come out and pressed the ball a little quicker but it still took a deflection.

"It's very difficult to come here and for them to score goals like that and to try and quantify it by saying we didn't do this or didn't do that."

Day was right but should he, the assistant, have had to quantify or say anything?