Keith Hackett reacts to West Ham penalty incident vs Lincoln that was missed by referee

Andrew Kitchen had a very busy night as he refereed West Ham's 6-0 win over Lincoln City on Wednesday.

Lincoln had both Tom Hamer and Conor McGrandles shown straight red cards within the first 23 minutes at Sincil Bank, before the Hammers went on a goalscoring spree that saw them shoot up to third in the Championship table.

Hamer lasted just three minutes before he was sent off for a wild, two-footed lunge on Joel Veltman.

Twenty minutes later, McGrandles was given his marching orders for denying an obvious goalscoring opportunity when Jarrod Bowen was through on goal in a one-v-one situation.

That opened the floodgates for the Hammers, but on top of the six goals and the two red cards, there were appeals for Kitchen to also award a penalty in the 60th minute when the score was 3-0.

And Keith Hackett believes it should've been a spot kick for the Irons.

Why should West Ham have received a penalty?

Mahamadou Kante, who missed a great chance to score in the first half and didn't end up on the scoresheet at Lincoln's Sincil Bank, found himself being pushed to the ground inside the penalty box at the hour-mark.

A short Jarrod Bowen free-kick found Kante just inside the penalty area, before the West Ham ace tried to touched the ball

However, as Kante made his pass, Deji Elerewe used hands to push him in the back and to the ground.

Despite appeals, Kitchen didn't point to the spot.

Hackett believes that while it was a foul, he thinks that the referee simply couldn't see the incident.

"This is a push by the defender and easy to see on video replays," the former FIFA-listed referee told West Ham Zone.

"From a referees perspective he has no viewing angle on this incident. The player who was pushed is covering the action of the opponent who delivered the push.

"The referee does not have a view of this offence and of course he cannot guess.

"He may have had some assistance from his colleagues."

How did Mahamadou Kante perform vs Lincoln?

In the 22nd minute, Kante should have opened the scoring for West Ham when a Bowen corner found him pretty much unmarked at the back post.

He rose well and won the header with ease, but couldn't direct it goalwards and essentially headed it straight into the ground before it went out for a goalkick.

Stats by Sofascore should that Kante generated an xG of 0.38 throughout the game. For comparison, Konstantinos Mavropanos (0.24), Bowen (0.22) and Edvin Austbo (0.09) all had lower xG but scored.

Kante completed 86 per cent of his 65 attempted passes and he won just one of the four ground duels he contended.

Considering the result, Kante probably could have done better and maybe got on the scoresheet himself.

However, after a 6-0 win, it would be very harsh to critique anyone, especially a young player who's had such a good season so far.