I won't waste your time with this one as I only saw some brief highlights on Match of the Day, and the chief concerns on that viewing were a superbly worked West Ham goal that ultimately won the match, and some appalling tackling and crazy referring decisions that seemed to puzzle just about everyone apart from match ref Stuart Atwell.

In a nasty game that threatened to spill over on several occasions both Scott Parker and Lucas Neill could count themselves lucky to finish the game on the pitch while Carlton Cole, dismissed for a second bookable when his high leg collided with Boyce's low head, could justifiably ask if that, or the earlier booking for a late tackle, deserved so much as a yellow.

Before Cole's dismissal on 37 minutes, the striker had scored a wonderful goal, finishing off with a curling shot that had followed a superbly intricate interchange between Parker, Di Michele and Noble.

However, the red carding led to bad feeling between both sides with Scott Parker lucky to remain unscathed as he was hauled away incensed by Michael Brown's request to ref Atwell to produce the card for Cole's high leg. I have long said the request for a card should, in itself, be a yellow offence but there was no reason for Parker's loss of temper especially following the raking studs tackle that the Hammer's midfielder had perpetrated minutes earlier.

Playing with ten men, the Hammers played well to hold out until half time before further mayhem broke out after the break. Lucas Neill could count himself lucky when an over the top challenge on Cattermole brought only a booking, but the Wigan player, clearly incensed, then went in too strongly on Scott Parker causing the player to collapse in pain. With Atwell waving the card to even the player count, it looked bad for Parker as he writhed about and was carried off, but he seemed to recover quickly – too quickly? - and was subjected to inevitable abuse from the Wigan fans from then on.

It seems appropriately ironic that, of all the squaring up and niggling play that panned out over the game, the worst injury would appear to strike the brilliant Jack Collison who went down in agony on 76 minutes with no-one near him, his studs seeming to get stuck in the turf. On TV, it was likened to Michael Owen's injury in the World Cup but, somewhat surprisingly, news from the West Ham treatment room has since suggested that the Welsh youngster will be back after two weeks. That is really good news.

Fights and injuries aside this was an excellent three points on a ground where we have an enviable record and the fight to finish at least 7th - something that looked extremely unlikely just before Christmas - now looks to be gathering momentum.