West Ham’s amiable manager Gianfranco Zola tasted defeat for the first time as a Premiership manager against Gary Megson’s Bolton on October 5th. His goalkeeper Robert Green was on the fringes of the England set-up – a position that became problematic for Fabio Capello, as current incumbent David James has experienced gaffes over the years and is suffering from a loss of form. He was once referred to as ‘Calamity,’ but he worked his way back to become first choice for club and country. His predecessor, Paul Robinson, suffered from a horrible bobble in the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb that affected his form for club and country. He was replaced in England’s goal by Scott Carson, who played in the vital European Championship qualifier against Croatia that ended the England career of McClaren, after just one cap. Carson made a terrible blunder that contributed to England’s defeat at Wembley and failure to advance. He joined West Bromwich Albion in the summer and played again for England against Germany in a friendly last November, along with Robinson who played in the first half. Carson made a mistake that cost a goal, but John Terry took the blame for the misunderstanding. Meanwhile, injury blighted the progress of Wigan’s Chris Kirkland and Manchester United’s Ben Foster was competent on his international début against Spain almost two years ago, but after his loan spells ended he hardly gets a game at Manchester United. England has options between the posts, yet no keeper is laying a strong claim to the jersey, so Capello had another look at Green against Spain in the friendly in Sevilla and the West Ham keeper did his chances no harm, but it was a different story against Bolton and Green will be grateful that Capello did not judge him by that poor performance.

Green gifted the opener to Kevin Davies after half an hour in a match that his manager believed they were dominating. Zola has introduced an attacking style to West Ham’s play and he felt that they didn’t get what they deserved, but refused to blame his keeper. Green made a howler by failing to claim a long pass from Jlloyd Samuel to the edge of his area after thirty minutes, which he dropped at the feet of Davies. The surprised Bolton striker could hardly miss and didn’t. “I’m very disappointed, because when you find your team playing well as we were before the goal you expect to score at any moment and then instead the goal comes from the opposition,” said Zola. “It’s quite a surprise to everybody, but this is football and we need to improve. It won’t be like this all the time. He [Green] didn’t say anything, but I know that he is disappointed with it. I haven’t got anything to say to him. A goalkeeper like him has all my trust and the team’s trust and this time it was a bad day, but I’m sure that maybe in the next game he’s going to save two penalties.”

It got worse as less than five minutes later Green parried Grétar Steinsson’s volley into the path of Gary Cahill for a simple chance to double Bolton’s lead. “One mistake doesn’t change him,” said Zola. “Definitely I made some worse mistakes myself, but that didn’t change my value. Football is like that you know and the important thing is that you have always confidence in what you are doing. That’s what I tell the players – confidence in what we are doing, because they are the right things to do.” Green regained confidence and performed well enough for West Ham to earn a cap from Capello. Meanwhile, James’ form has suffered for both Portsmouth and England.