West Ham were furious after a “joke” penalty decision handed Nottingham Forest three vital points in the fight against relegation from the Premier League on Tuesday night
West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek described the penalty that handed Nottingham Forest a hugely damaging win as “a joke” after VAR conspired to deepen the Hammers’ miserable run. Morgan Gibbs-White netted a 89th-minute penalty to earn Forest a 2-1 win on Tuesday night and make it 10 games without victory for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
West Ham went ahead in the 13th minute when Murillo headed a whipped corner into his own net. The home side thought they had gone 2-0 up when Crysencio Summerville blasted in from the edge of the box, only for VAR to find an offside in the build-up.
The Premier League match centre wrote on X: “VAR checked the referee’s call of goal – and established that [Taty] Castellanos was in an offside position in the build-up and recommended that the goal was disallowed.”
Forest then levelled things through Nicolas Dominguez’s looped header from a corner. And things went from bad to worse for the Hammers when VAR recommended that referee Tony Harrington go to the pitchside monitor late on.
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Harrington adjudged that West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola had fouled Gibbs-White by catching him in the face while trying to punch the ball clear. “After VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision of no penalty to Nottingham Forest,” the match centre explained. “Referee announcement: ‘After review, the goalkeeper fouls Nottingham Forest number 10. My final decision is penalty kick.’”
Gibbs-White beat Areola from the spot to establish a seven-point gap between Forest in 17th place and West Ham in 18th. It was a huge result which prompted an immediate backlash.
“For me it is a joke,” Soucek told Sky Sports. “I just saw it again and I think we can have 20 penalties per game if it is like that. I came to the Premier League because I thought it was the toughest league in the world and we are all fighters and warriors, but this looks more like basketball when you can’t touch the player. This is what I saw
“[Areola] is the same in the dressing room. He didn’t know who was fouled. He came for the ball, I think I cleared it and that was already out. We didn’t know why there was VAR and then the penalty, so it was tough for all of us.”
“To be honest, I got whacked in the face and I didn’t have a clue what was going on. I came to my senses when he said it was a penalty,” Gibbs-White told Sky Sports.
“No doubts, I was practicing it yesterday. It was a safety one, but we got the three points in the end. It is what we want to do, we want to go into the game believing. We have not got to kick on this year, a fresh start. First half we were that one yard off and second half it picked up, and we were good again.”
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