West Ham United: Dermot Gallagher disagrees with one key decision in loss v Newcastle United
Dermot Gallagher believes the goal scored by West Ham attacker Mohammed Kudus against Newcastle United should have been ruled out.
Kudus profited from some quick thinking by team-mate Lucas Paqueta to put West Ham 2-1 up in Saturday’s (30 March) Premier League contest.
Paqueta quickly took a free-kick, but Newcastle’s players were unhappy because defender Fabian Schar was on the ground with a head injury.
Speaking on Sky Sports News [1 April, 11:41am], former Premier League referee Gallagher said: “I think the best solution is, the minute Paqueta takes the free-kick, you blow the whistle.
“You say ‘sorry, but Schar’s got to be treated’, and you bring the free-kick back. If you blow immediately, you don’t then have the consequence of the ball ending in the back of the net. It would have been easier to kill it off quickly.”
Gallagher felt that the two contentious penalties awarded to Newcastle were both the correct call, as was Anthony Gordon’s sending off in Newcastle’s 4-3 comeback win.
Newcastle 4-3 West Ham full of controversy
As far as matches go, they do not come more action-packed than the one at St James’ Park at the weekend.
West Ham were unfortunately on the wrong end of a seven-goal thriller that had talking points aplenty.
In many ways, the Kudus goal is now a moot point as West Ham – despite adding a third goal through Jarrod Bowen – lost the match.
The bigger talking point is the second penalty awarded to Newcastle, which Alexander Isak converted to make it 3-2 and game on.
Referee Rob Jones adjudged that Kalvin Phillips had kicked the boot of Gordon, which you cannot really argue with when looking at the replays.
The argument is, however, that Gordon knew exactly what he was doing. Ultimately, it is one of those you just have to accept.
The only positive is that there is a quick turnaround in games, meaning a chance to get this loss out of the system when facing Tottenham on Tuesday (2 April).
In other West Ham news, Gabby Agbonlahor delivered a “frightening” verdict when asked if David Moyes should stay or go.
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