West Ham were denied yet again at the King Power Stadium when a late, late penalty was awarded against Andy Carroll, allowing Leicester City the chance to grab a 2-2 draw. It was more than the league leaders deserved.

Once again, the result and the manner of the goals was surrounded in controversy, the match ending with the unusual sound of the officials being booed off by both sets of fans.

Aware that denying West Ham space and closing them down quickly is a good way to unsettle Slaven Bilic’s side, Leicester made some robust challenges in the opening stages. In the technical area, Bilic was waving his arms at the fourth official to complain about the lack of protection for his creative players.

While the TV pundits praised the fact that referee Jon Moss was letting the match flow, there was a nagging feeling that the strong challenges would eventually get someone in trouble. Of course, inevitably when the yellow card was eventually shown, it was for a fairly innocuous Jamie Vardy challenge. That decision was to have serious repercussions later when Vardy threw his legs into Angelo Ogbonna to try and win a penalty and was sent off for diving.

While Vardy can have little complaint about the overall outcome, the harsh reality of the two incidents together just highlighted other inconsistencies.

The Hammers deservedly got back into the game, by virtue of a rugby tackle by Wes Morgan on Winston Reid. However, if that was a penalty then every game would be littered with such infringements, considering the amount of shirt pulling and holding that goes on in most games. Indeed, Reid may have had another two in this match alone.

Leicester fans were incensed when Robert Huth was denied a spot-kick when Ogbonna climbed over the Leicester defender and it was easy to see why. If the situations were reversed, most Hammers would have been on their feet too.

When ex-professionals then defend the decisions based, apparently, on the fact the referee warned Huth and Morgan but hadn’t said a word to Ogbonna, then the rabbit is very seriously disappearing down the hole. Most fans may have trouble quoting every rule in the football manual verbatim but if there’s a passage where the referee is allowed to ignore a foul three times before giving a warning and then awarding a spot-kick, then I for one have been watching the wrong sport for years.

The problem in today’s game is one of perspective. For anyone with memories of Don Revie’s Leeds side or the antics of Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris, it sometimes seems as if the game has gone too soft. The need to clamp down on excessive play though, seems to have brought about a good deal of confusion about what is, or isn’t, foul play.

What is frustrating for most supporters is to see fair but hard challenges penalised, or challenges that would result in a whistle on any other part of the pitch being ignored in the penalty area.

Of course the referee’s job is hard but the inconsistencies make it so much harder.