Keith Hackett believes Martin Atkinson deserves praise for awarding West Ham a penalty
We’re delighted to welcome former Premier League referee Keith Hackett as our exclusive West Ham United columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium.
Ex-Premier League referee Keith Hackett believes that West Ham benefitted from one good decision against Manchester United on Sunday.
The Irons lost thanks to a late winner from Jesse Lingard but were handed the chance to snatch a point when Luke Shaw handled the ball in the box, and after a VAR check, Martin Atkinson awarded a penalty.
Mark Noble was brought off the bench to take the spot-kick but missed [Sky Sports’ YouTube].
However, Hackett believes that this was a good decision to award the Irons a penalty.
Speaking to West Ham Zone, he said: “There was that penalty kick that he did award for a handball, which VAR came in on.
“I think that was a bit of good refereeing, in fairness, to get a bit of balance in.”
Good decision from Atkinson.
The referee had a pretty awful game by all accounts and made several clear and obvious errors.
However, he deserves credit for using VAR properly and handing the Irons a chance to snatch a deserved point.
It is just a shame that Noble wasn’t up to it on this occasion, and the Hammers fell to their first defeat of the season.
The match itself was fascinating and enthralling, and the Irons look like an excellent side and only some poor refereeing and a missed penalty cost them a point.
Ultimately, though, we agree with Hackett that this was a good decision by Atkinson and VAR, and it was just a shame that Noble couldn’t deliver from the spot.
However, should that overrule all the poor decisions that he made throughout the game? We don’t think it should, and the Premier League have to take action against these poor referees.
In other West Ham news, Ex has relayed news on the Irons’ pursuit of a striker.
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