No Rift at West Ham

Apparently some of the media have read Dean Ashton's muted celebration of his goal in West Ham''s game yesterday as a rift between him and Alan Curbishley and say he is upset at being left out of the starting eleven.

The media seem to be applying the same logic as that went into last week's story about Bobby Zamora - he has been injured for a long time therefore there must be a problem between him and the manager.

Anyway Curbishley has been quick to deny any rumours about a problem between him and Ashton,

"I had a little chat with Dean about the situation," Curbishley said. "I have to do what's best for the team, not the individual. He's been out for five weeks and in that time has had one practice and one reserve match.

There's no rift between us, despite what people might say. We have to see whether or not Dean can last 90 minutes."