Anton Ferdinand furious at ‘disgraceful’ decision in West Ham United loss v Nottingham Forest
West Ham United suffered their second successive defeat at the start of the new Premier League season as Nottingham Forest won out at the City Ground.
A tight but frantic affair was decided just before half-time as summer signing Taiwo Awoniyi managed to scramble the ball home to send the home fans wild as they watched top-flight football on home soil for the first time in more than 20 years.
Irons captain Declan Rice had the chance to level the scores in the second half from the penalty spot but the England international was thwarted by Dean Henderson.
Moments before Forest’s goal, though, West Ham could have had their own as Said Benrahma led the counter-attack before eventually firing into the back of the net from the edge of the penalty area.
But VAR ruled the goal out having adjudged Michail Antonio to have fouled Orel Mangala in the process and Anton Ferdinand was outraged at the decision.
“Disgraceful how is that a foul,” the former Hammer said via his personal Twitter account.
Influence
It is widely known that referees tend to be influenced by home support and give more decisions to please the local contingent in 50-50 scenarios.
That might have had an effect on the outcome of this VAR check but the Jamaican doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on in this instance.
Mangala did not move into his path at the last moment nor did Antonio make an attempt to go around him either so the only logical decision was a foul.
You can see why the officials didn’t spot it at the time with a lot happening as players scrambled around to either score or stop a shot but that is a perfect example of VAR working perfectly.
The decision itself does not take any of the limelight away from what was another uninspiring performance across the board as it was against Manchester City last week and Moyes has to do something before it starts to get out of hand.