West Ham makes ‘strong’ ref claim and Newcastle United assistant Jason Tindall has words in the tunnel
Newcastle United were awarded two penalties in the 4-3 win against West Ham and Hammers boss David Moyes felt that referee Rob Jones played a huge role in the Magpies’ victory
David Moyes has suggested that referee Rob Jones played a ‘huge part’ in Newcastle United’s 4-3 win against his West Ham side.
Newcastle’s first and second goals both came from the spot in a thrilling contest at St James’ Park on Saturday. Anthony Gordon was brought down by Vladimir Coufal for the first, following a VAR check for offside, and the England international was also felled by substitute Kalvin Phillips for the Magpies’ second penalty late on after Jones went to his pitch side monitor to make the call.
Alexander Isak converted both spot-kicks on an afternoon both coaching teams felt aggrieved with the officials. Indeed, just a few minutes after Moyes and first-team coach Kevin Nolan went apoplectic at the fourth official, after Dan Burn’s shoulder barge on Mohammed Kudus went unpunished late in the first half, Newcastle were furious that West Ham’s second goal stood at the other end.
Fabian Schar was down holding his face at the time after being caught by Kudus’ hand before the Hammers took a quick free-kick in the build-up to the Ghana star scoring. Newcastle fans chanted ‘You’re not fit to referee!’ and ‘2-1 to the referee!’ before booing the officials off at half-time and assistant Jason Tindall waited to follow Jones and his team down the tunnel to give them a piece of his mind.
However, it was Moyes who aired his grievances at full-time after watching his side throw away a 3-1 lead when they still had a two-goal advantage with just a quarter of an hour to go.
“We have had two penalty kicks where I actually think the boy [Gordon] kicks Kalvin Phillips’ foot if you want to look at it a different way,” he told TNT Sports. “He actually puts his foot in front of Kalvin Phillips and stops him kicking the ball so I don’t see how that’s a penalty kick but there you go. It was given. Very similar to the first one in some ways.
“Those decisions didn’t go. They were really tough decisions. They were close decisions that didn’t fall in our favour. At 3-1, if we don’t give away the penalty, we start to ease the game out. I think the referee played a huge part in the result today I really do.”
