Football: Hartson discontent
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Your support makes all the difference.Derby County 1
Asanovic pen 53
West Ham United 0
Attendance: 18,057
West Ham may have invested pounds 7.3m in a new strikeforce, but their old woes in front of goal continued as John Hartson and Paul Kitson struggled to justify their expensive price tags. Instead it was Derby's Aljosa Asanovic who shone and, fittingly, the Croatian midfielder's 53rd-minute penalty gave the home side their first Premiership victory in 11 attempts.
Hartson took just 13 minutes to make his presence felt for the wrong reasons. An apparent elbowing offence on Igor Stimac earned him his 11th booking of the season and the Welsh international striker will now be hit by his third suspension of the campaign in a fortnight's time.
His partnership with Kitson, obviously in its infancy, showed few signs of an understanding and only Asanovic looked likely to threaten as both sides displayed all the hallmarks of teams desperate to preserve their Premiership status.
Hartson, whose pounds 5m move from Arsenal was completed on Friday, failed to trouble the Derby keeper Russell Hoult before the 69th minute. Kitson, who began his career at the Baseball Ground, felt he should have had a penalty when he appeared to be tripped by Gary Rowett after running on to Rio Ferdinand's 36th-minute through-ball.
Neither side seemed to be prepared to attack in numbers during a turgid first period and it took Asanovic's flash of inspiration to break the deadlock eight minutes after half-time.
Picking up the ball on the left, he cut inside past two challengers before being tripped by Ferdinand. Asanovic converted the resultant penalty emphatically by hitting it powerfully low to Ludek Miklosko's left - a goal which brought three points of welcome relief to Jim Smith, Derby's manager .
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