Presenter Dan Lawless has slammed referee Peter Bankes after he inadvertently played a role in West Ham United conceding a goal.
Over the past weekend, the Hammers travelled down south to play Southampton in the Premier League but had to settle for just a point in a 1-1 draw.
Indeed, Romain Perraud fired the Saints into the lead during the first half but West Ham responded through a fine Declan Rice effort in the 64th minute of the game.
However, for Southampton’s opener, it appeared as though the referee blocked off Jarrod Bowen from getting to the ball, which allowed Perraud to nip in and steal the ball before striking at goal.
West Ham Fan TV man Lawless shared an image of the incident on Twitter, and added: “Honestly, look at this clown of a ref. Awful positioning, doesn’t blow up for a drop ball and will still be reffing in this prem with no repercussions.
“Refereeing in this country is in the toilet.”
TIF thoughts on the goal and West Ham…
It’s easy to see why Lawless is upset as Bankes clearly does play a role in the goal by accidentally blocking off Bowen. However, it has been argued that it was still the right decision to let the goal stand.
Indeed, Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher told Ref Watch on Sky Sports (via football.london) that the game didn’t need to be stopped as the ball didn’t hit the referee, and so play was right to just continue.
In full, he said: “Sometimes I say better to be a lucky referee and here the referee is massively unlucky because he steps across Jarrod Bowen, what he needs is the ball to strike him.
“The minute that ball strikes him, he can blow his whistle, restart with a drop ball and all the pain he’s received from people saying about the goal goes away. It didn’t strike him and unfortunately, they scored.”
Taking it all into account, it’s no shock that those who follow West Ham are feeling pretty hard done by right now, but seeing as the referee was not forced to stop play, it really does just seem like a bad slice of the luck for David Moyes’ men.
Do you think the ref should have stopped play?
No
Yes
