The final touch lacking

I finally got to watch West Ham's 1-1 draw home to Wigan Athletic on Monday night. I went to the Globe Saturday morning, but was soon informed that West Ham-Wigan was the one fixture that morning that wasn't available on satellite. I stuck around for a little over an hour, and then I left to meet TMG and her friend for brunch.

Frustrated that I had gotten up early on a Saturday and not seen my side play, I decided to take the plunge with Setanta Broadband. I was disappointed to find out that the matches are not available on demand. I could not watch the match when it first aired late Saturday afternoon, so I had to wait till Monday night. The set up, at least on my two Apple computers, was poor. I have a cable modem broadband connection, but the site seems to rely on Flash, and Flash is poor on Apple computers. I will have to try watching on TMG's PC. If you're seen The Bourne Ultimatum, with its shaky, hand-held cameras and quick cuts, you'll get a decent idea of what the broadcast looked like. Occasionally, the screen looked like a LeRoy Nieman painting. Still, I was glad to be able to see the match, finally.

The biggest play of the first half was a no-call inside Wigan's six-yard box. It appeared that Mark Noble was hauled down around the 27th minute. The defender definitely got his arm around Noble a bit, but the midfielder also seemed to lean into the Wigan player. With the picture quality, I can't say whether it was deserved or not. A few minutes later, Craig Bellamy thought he had his first goal for West Ham, but he was called offsides. Again, it was too hard to tell with the video quality that I was watching. Wigan's Jason Koumas beat Robert Green in the 41st minute, but his shot hit the upright.

Early in the second half, West Ham continued to have the better of the chances, but just couldn't finish any of them. Lucas Neill, making his season debut, received a pass from Kieron Dyer and had a shot, but he hesitated. Instead, he returned the ball to Dyer, but he was now offsides. A couple of free kicks and a corner kick also provided some opportunities in the first quarter hour of the second half. Dean Ashton came on as a substitute for Bobby Zamora around the 60th minute -- I was forced to play with the video options occasionally to reset the sound, and each time, I would lose a bit of the action -- and Lee Bowyer came on for Hayden Mullins in the 65th minute. The final substitution saw Luis Boa Morte replace Bellamy. I must acknowledge that this troubled me. Moments later, Wigan struck first, with a circus bicycle kick by Paul Scharner leaving no recourse for Green. Two minutes later, some good play by Boa Morte and Bowyer -- and no one could have been more surprised by that than I was -- nearly brought the equalizer. Then, even more stunning, a minute later, they combine for the first live-ball goal for the Hammers this season, by Bowyer. Boa Morte also had some nice play the rest of the way with Ashton. West Ham had a few decent chances the rest of the way, although they almost conceded in the 90th minute with a weak back pass to Green.

Through three matches, the Hammers have won four points and sit 14th on the table. It's an OK start, nothing more. The six teams below West Ham on the table have all played four games, so that's a positive. A negative is taking only one point from a possible six at home so far, but that's balanced a bit by taking all three in their only away match.