TNT Sports pundit stunned by ‘Absolutely Ridiculous’ moment in West Ham United v Newcastle
Lucy Ward has described the incident leading up to Mohammed Kudus’ goal for West Ham against Newcastle as “absolutely ridiculous”.
The Hammers threw away a 3-1 lead against the Magpies at St James’ Park to fall to a 4-3 defeat after late goals from Harvey Barnes.
Kudus had given the visitors the lead with a fine strike on the stroke of half-time which came after a quickly taken free-kick, while Newcastle defender Fabian Schar was still on the ground holding his face.
The home team were furious that the goal was allowed to stand as it was a head injury, and while on commentary for TNT Sports (30 March, 13:25) both Darren Fletcher and Ward were stunned by the situation.
“It’s a bizarre passage of play that pretty much sums up a bizarre first half at St James’ Park,” Fletcher said.
“Absolutely ridiculous,” Ward added. “Both managers have been complaining about some of the referees decisions in this first half.”
Fletcher then added that “the game has to stop” as it was a head injury.
West Ham played to the whistle
There seem to be a lot of people complaining about the incident, but West Ham did absolutely nothing wrong.
Schar was down holding his face after it was brushed by the hand of Kudus, but it was a free-kick to the Hammers and it was their prerogative to start the game.
The referee didn’t have an issue with it as he allowed the game to go on, and Newcastle really should have reacted better as there were moments for them to defend the goal before it even happened.
The first rule of football is always to play to the whistle and that’s all the team did. If teams have to wait for players to get to their feet all the time then the spectacle will be totally ruined.
As fans the game has already been slowed down too much, and there are constant complaints about players milking the head injury rule to gain an advantage, so it’s good to see the referee not falling foul to it.
In other West Ham news, TNT commentator rages at “extremely clumsy” Hammers ace after what he did v Newcastle.
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