Wigan v West Ham Utd: half time report

West Ham remain level at the break - somewhat controversially - in this afternoon's Premier League clash at Wigan.

Carlton Cole, who had been having a quiet afternoon thought he had put the Hammers ahead when he nodded home a free kick on the stroke of half time.

However Cole - not to mention everyone else in the stadium - was stunned to discover that his effort has been ruled out by referee Alan Wiley who, it appears, blew for the break milliseconds before Cole nodded home beyond Chris Kirkland - bringing back memories of Clive Thomas' decision to rule out a Brazil goal in the 1978 World Cup Finals for a similar reason.

Gianfranco Zola's side - missing the likes of Jon Spector (rested), Luis Jimenez (injured), Jack Collison (unknown) and new signing Alessandro Diamanti (on the bench) - also thought they should have been awarded a penalty when Zavon Hines, making his first ever Premier League start was seemingly brought down in the area.

However official Riley deemed the challenge legal - luckily for the Wigan defender involved who,. being the last man, would have had to have sent off had the decision gone against him.

At the other end, the closest Wigan went to scoring was four minutes ahead of the break when a deflected Figueroa effort took a wicked deflection off Matthew Upson that forced a tremendous save from Rob Green.

We'll have more for you at the final whistle.

West Ham United: Green, Faubert, Tomkins, Upson, Gabbidon, Noble, Parker, Kovac, Stanislas, Hines, Cole.

Subs: Kurucz, Spector, Da Costa, Payne, Behrami, Diamanti, Nouble

Wigan Athletic: Kirkland, Melchiot, Bramble, Boyce, Figueroa, Thomas, Koumas, Gomez, Diame, N'Zogbia, Rodallega.

Subs: Pollitt, Edman, Cho, Scharner, Scotland, Sinclair, King.