Keith Hackett reacts to Jon Moss performance in West Ham United win v Kidderminster
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...
Keith Hackett has showered praise on Jon Moss for his performance in West Ham United’s FA Cup win over Kidderminster.
The ex-Premier League official insisted it would have been easy for the top-flight referee to be accused of bias towards the Irons.
Instead, he allowed the game to flow and took charge of an “excellent” fourth-round showdown at Aggborough
“I think that getting the balance, you have to treat both teams in the normal manner,” he exclusively told West Ham Zone.
“You’ve got to be alert that it can be a challenging environment, you have to give respect to both clubs.
“One area you’ve got to be very careful of is, he’s refereed West Ham on numerous occasions.
“He might in a Premier League game, be able to refer to some of those players with their Christian names – when it comes to the FA Cup, that’s a no-no, otherwise those players from Kidderminster that he hasn’t refereed before may say they’ve got a Premier League referee favouring a Premier League club.
“He didn’t do that, I thought in fact, his best performance of the season – he allowed the game to flow. It really was an excellent cup tie.”
Excellent.
Moss took charge of this one very well.
There was a moment before extra-time kicked off where he was spotted laughing along with Declan Rice, but that is just human.
We don’t want robots officiating our games, and having a good laugh is nothing to do with potentially being biased to a Premier League side.
Kidderminster got the whole package, a Premier League side, a Premier League referee and a great afternoon for everyone involved with their club.
It will be back to action as usual for Moss and the Irons this week, with more exciting Premier League ties to come.
In other West Ham United news, David Sullivan is set to earn the Irons “tens of millions” in new 2022 windfall