Conners: It Was A Pen

David Connolly has no doubts that the penalty decision that earned West Ham a spotkick just before half time - and which set Jermain Defoe on the way to his hat trick when he cooly slotted home as a result - was the right one.

Tony Vidmar was adjudged by Billericay referee Andy D'Urso to have brought David down as he raced in on goal, and he insists:

"I was going to kick it and he seemed to catch my leg or something; it was a stonewaller as far as I am concerned.

"There is nothing else to it really; if I'd stayed on my feet I'd have fancied it big time.

"I was waiting and waiting to get the angle to hit it with my left and he took me out, so there we go."

David was more concerned about how well the players fought back from 2-0 down following the defeat at Gillingham, and he adds:

"There was a lot of good play leading up to the goals, team play, and obviously some great bits of skill to finish them off.

"It is another tough game on Sunday but if we can come to places like Cardiff and win there is no reason why we can't do the same to Millwall - it will be another good game to be involved in and hopefully we will carry on another run."

As for the atmosphere in the 10,724 crowd, and a tannoy announcer that made a great play of saying at half time:

"Let's remind the away fans of the score; it's Cardiff 2 West Ham 1" - his thoughts after the game go unrecorded - David says:

"It was fine; they are passionate, they like their football, but we coped with it very well."

He admits that the defeat at Gillingham - the only other team, along with Cardiff, to have put two past the Hammers so far this campaign - he says:

"It is hard to keep winning all the time and the manner in which Saturday happened we could have had a point - and probably should have, if we had played our cards right.

"So it is not all bad and sometimes it is good to keep everybody in check, and know that there is still a lot of hard work to do, so maybe Saturday wasn't too bad a result in that respect, anyway."

David feels Alan Pardew will have been impressed by the side's battling qualities and adds:

"I am sure he watched it in the TV and will have seen that the lads have got character as well.

"Trevor has got another month and I am sure he will leave the team in good shape when he takes over."