MIDFIELDER Matty Etherington, whose cross set up teammate Luke Chadwick's first goal for the Hammers, was delighted to see his friend get off the mark in the claret and blue. But Matty was less impressed with the last minute penalty that cancelled out Luke's strike and wiped two points off the Hammers Friday evening tally.
"It was great to see Luke get his first goal for the Club," admitted Matty, "and I'm glad that I was able to get the assist. Basically, I saw Luke and Marlon at the far post and swung over a cross to try and get one of them on the end of it. Marlon went up to challenge with the goalkeeper, the ball broke loose and Chaddie was there to stab it home.
"Not the prettiest of goals, but I'm sure he won't be worrying about that. It was just a pity that we couldn't go on to win the game after playing so well in the second-half.
"We were passing the ball around comfortably, creating chances and really we should have killed the game off long before the penalty decision. With just a one goal lead, Leeds always had a chance to get back into it."
Nevertheless, Matty could not quite believe how Leeds eventually did get back into it, and the 23-year-old winger was left devastated by the last-minute penalty.
"It was a crushing blow," he confessed, "and after the game the whole dressing room was shocked at the way we had lost all three points.
"There was no way that it was a penalty, I don't think there was anyone inside Upton Park that thought it was apart from the referee.
"I know people have said that he might have been trying to even things up after not giving a handball against Darren Powell. But to be honest it's the referee's fault that he missed the earlier appeal and he can't then go and give a penalty when the incident clearly doesn't warrant one.
"But the referee has a tough job and at the end of the day it is one of those things that you just can't do anything about. Now we have to pick ourselves up and look forward to the trip to Preston and hopefully building on a great away performance at Sunderland."
Indeed, after Friday night's disappointment Matty admitted that the players can't wait to get back into action at Deepdale on Saturday.
"When something like that goes against you in the last minute of the game it doesn't give you any time to make it right again," he explained. "It's frustrating because all the players want to get the Leeds game out of their heads and try to make amends.
"We'll have to wait until Saturday to do that, but we'll work hard this week and hopefully we can get a good result at Preston that will put us into a strong position over Christmas.
"The penalty aside, we put in a good second-half performance against Leeds and can take confidence from that. Preston are a strong side and they'll make it difficult for us. But they've been on the end of some tough results recently and hopefully we can take advantage of that by getting another vital away win."