Robert Green was not biting his tongue following Monday's Premier League goalless draw with West Bromwich Albion. He had already done so, painfully, following a clash with Baggies defender Jonas Olsson.
The Swede's 51st-minute challenge left the England goalkeeper feeling a bit groggy and nursing a nasty cut in his mouth. Afterwards, however, the 29-year-old absolved Olsson of any blame for his uncomfortable injury, pointing out that accidental collisions happen countless times in every game of football.
"He caught me a treat and I managed to bite my tongue. For the remainder of the game I could feel bits flaking off it. It is sore and I felt a bit groggy but I certainly didn't see anything of the player or anything like that. It's just one of those things that happens in football and you just pick yourself up and come for the next cross. I did that and I helped the team out as much as I could."
Focusing on the match itself Green, who made a fantastic save from James Morrison to keep the match goalless, admitted the Hammers had lacked the quality to break down Tony Mowbray's relegation-battlers and snatch a vital winning goal.
"I think the way they played and with the players missing from our side it made for a difficult night. They packed the midfield because they realised that when we had the ball were not going to be able to hit it to a big man up front because we had two small men up there. That made it difficult for us.
"Having said that, even when we were on the ball, the quality probably wasn't there even at the best of times and I don't think we had a shot on target all night. When that happens, the best case scenario is getting a nil-nil draw and we did that. We defended well and everyone worked really hard. The difficulty was the quality on the ball that, on another day, would have happened but it wasn't there for us."
While he and his team-mates would ideally have liked to have picked up a third consecutive Premier League victory following wins over Manchester City and Wigan Athletic, Green admitted that, without the suspended Carlton Cole and injured Valon Behrami and Jack Collison, life was always going to be more difficult against West Brom.
As such, he conceded that perhaps a goalless draw was not the worst result in the world for Gianfranco Zola's team, who are still in pole position for a place in next season's UEFA Europa League.
"It's a difficult one because the expectation levels are there. Looking at the previous games we just managed to take a chance but against West Brom there were not many chances to take. It was kind of a role reversal from earlier this season when we were scoring quite a few goals but also conceding quite a few. If you get the two right you're a decent winning team but you can't fault the lads for their effort. It was clearly not the sharpest game we've ever played."