Darren England ‘right’ despite West Ham v Brentford controversy fans did not like
West Ham were left frustrated by Brentford after what Thomas Frank urged his players to do at the London Stadium.
The Hammers fell to a 1-0 defeat on Saturday (15 February) as Kevin Schade took advantage of a scramble around Alphonse Areola after just four minutes.
This allowed the Bees to sit back and protect their lead which is exactly what they were able to do despite chances for Mohammed Kudus and Konstantinos Mavropanos.
In securing the three points, the away side utilised some gamesmanship which was met with plenty of moans and groans from the E20 faithful.
Martin Allen agrees with Darren England in West Ham v Brentford decision
The moment which generated the largest sign of frustration from the London Stadium crowd was seeing goalkeeper Mark Flekken go down under little contact from a corner.
As James Ward-Prowse looked to whip in a cross, the Dutchman went down as Kudus ran across him, forcing the referee to intervene.
This was much to the discontent of the Irons supporters but former Hammers midfielder Allen can understand why the decision was made and why the keeper opted to go down.
“What can referees do? If a goalkeeper says he’s got a head injury, referees aren’t doctors or a judge so the game has to be stopped,” Allen exclusively told West Ham Zone.
“We don’t know if Flekken did or did not have a head injury but as a manager, as a shadow of a doubt, it is part of the game.
“Brentford were 1-0 up, away from home, if the goalkeeper goes down to let the rest of his team settle down, I can’t pretend that I haven’t done that myself. It’s a tactic, some people don’t like but I don’t see it as cheating, I see it as part of the game.
“Thomas Frank doesn’t want a quick tempo game at 1-0, he wants the chance to settle his side down to galvanise them to bring them back together.
“As a supporter of the other team, it’s very frustrating but it’s just what happened.“
Thomas Frank utilises dark arts against West Ham
The Danish head coach has been a breath of fresh air since earning promotion to the Premier League and showed another arrow in his quiver against the Hammers.
His side showed a knack for frustrating the opposition and riling the Irons fans which ultimately made it hard for Graham Potter’s side to perform at a positive level.
It has to be said that the second-half performance was generally much better than the first but with that being said there were still many frustrating performances from Lucas Paqueta and Kudus going forward.
Maybe the Hammers will learn something from Frank and his side in terms of a nastiness they can take forward to earn more hard-fought wins.