John Motson shared that he thought West Ham forward Javier Hernandez tried to use his head to score against Fulham but it just happened to hit his hand instead.
The legendary commentator shared if he was honest and being overly fair to the Hammers attacker, from where he was watching it looked like the player was heading the ball home.
Hernandez appeared to score with his hand to make it 1-1 with Fulham during their clash on Friday before goals from Issa Diop and Michail Antonio saw Manuel Pellegrini’s side emerge 3-1 winners.
“To be honest and to be really overly fair to him, I think he started off thinking he was going to head it,” said Motson on talkSPORT (14:37, Monday February 25th).
“If you saw it where I was watching, which was on television, from behind it looked like he was heading it so I see why the referee didn’t do anything or spot it.
“As he did look like he was heading it.
“And I know Ranieri got mad but there was no mass protest from Fulham.”
OPINION
Motson is being awfully kind to Hernandez, but it’s easy to see where the commentator is coming from. While the controversial Hammers goal may see Hernandez branded as a cheat by some, he did appear somewhat shocked that the linesman didn’t rule the goal out. The Hammers forward got away with scoring with his hand as it was placed very near to his head when trying to force the ball over the line. Just like Motson pointed out during the match it only seemed to be Claudio Ranieri outraged as he had spotted what had truly happened, and the fact none of the Fulham’s players reacted probably made the referee feel like he hadn’t made a mistake. Yet these things happen in football and it all ends up being swings and roundabouts. Pellegrini’s side have seen decisions wrongly go against them earlier in the season, and on this occasion they got a bit lucky. Hernandez’s goal ended up being the turning point in the match and helped the Hammers turn it around, so West Ham can count themselves fortunate VAR isn’t in effect this season.