Richard Keys and Andy Gray disagree on major incident during West Ham United v Southampton
Richard Keys was absolutely furious with the referee during West Ham and Southampton’s draw on Sunday while live on beIN Sports as a pundit.
The referee was central to Southampton’s goal after he got in the way of Jarred Bowen’s attempted clearance, which fell to Romain Perraud whose deflected strike went in. But the goal stood despite complaints from the visitors.
Speaking during half-time on beIN Sports [14:54, 16 October], Keys was furious that the referee didn’t halt play when he got in the way and also felt there was a problem with the initial throw-in too although Andy Gray disagreed with the latter.
“We’ve had confirmation from the match day centre that because the ball doesn’t touch the ref, there is nothing they can do about it,” he said.
“But the ref is a central figure here. Get out of the way.”
Nigel De Jong agreed, and followed on in defence of West Ham.
“It’s obstruction isn’t it? If the ref isn’t there in his way what would have happened? He would have passed the ball forward. But because the referee is there in his way, he blocked the opportunity for it.
Gray then discussed the throw-in incident that led to the goal.
“I think his foot is on the line. I think if your foot is on the line then part of your foot is over it.
But Keys and De Jong disagreed.
“I think it’s a foul throw,” Keys said. “A foot on the line is fine, but I think he’s on the pitch.
“It’s a foul,” De Jong agreed. “Why are there lines? The lines are to stay out of the pitch. It’s in bounds or out of bounds. You’ve got to say that’s out of bounds.”
Shocking
Another game and another set of shocking decisions by the officials that negatively affect West Ham United.
We played so well during the game and fully deserved three points, because aside from the deflected goal they scored amid all that confusion they created absolutely nothing.
Scamacca went close several times, Paqueta hit the post and we were the better team in all aspects but we’ve been let down by the man in the middle once again today.
The referee clearly gets in Bowen’s way for the clearance, and the images show that Walker-Peters’ foot was clearly over the line for the throw in he took, so the goal should’ve been ruled out twice.
What’s the point of technology if they can’t spot these clear and obvious errors on video after the fact? Get VAR gone and you’ll see us start climbing the table much quicker when we don’t have to rely on dodgy technology not being used correctly.