West Ham United boss David Moyes was left infuriated after VAR failed to correctly spot the ball leaving the field of play immediately before Manchester United’s equaliser on Saturday night.
The Hammers raced into a first half lead thanks to Tomas Soucek’s predatory finishing skills from a Declan Rice flick-on, but the hosts should have been further in front before an impressive United comeback resulted in a 3-1 defeat.
Jarrod Bowen, Pablo Fornals and Sebastien Haller were all guilty of squandering glorious chances, with United making them pay after the introduction of Bruno Fernandes.
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But just before the Portugal international fed Paul Pogba to curl home a wicked strike, Dean Henderson’s clearance appeared to drift a few yards over the touchline before curling back in.
Despite checks from VAR officials in Stockley Park, Moyes was left incensed as the goal was allowed to stand and the game subsequently turned on its head.
Moyes told talkSPORT: “So whose job is it do that? It’s the linesman’s isn’t it?
“His first job is to look. He says he turned away because he was looking for an offside; the first thing to do is see if the ball was in play or not.
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“The ball was over my head; I was probably in the best position of anybody, I was on the touchline.
“The ball was over my head and out! And I think you see the reaction of the players who were all sort of turning away, we’ve nearly turned off completely.
“We were amazed he did not put his flag up for the ball being out of play.”
The linesman correctly ruled out Bowen’s first half volley after he had strayed into an offside position, but West Ham had plenty of opportunities to increase their lead.
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Fornals passed up two great chances to score, while Haller managed to round Henderson – only to slip when he should have slotted home.
After three wins on the trot, Moyes was disappointed to see a lack of cutting edge from his players against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side.
“I thought we deserved more after the first 15 minutes of the second half as well,” he added.
“I thought we played really well and the disappointing thing was that we didn’t get a second goal when we were on top.
“Manchester United have got players who are capable of hurting you, but we didn’t expect it to be a decision that hurt us like that one tonight.
“We have been fortunate in recent games, we’ve picked up some decisions which have gone our way. But this one was a strange one – the ball was out.”
Perhaps the most important takeaway from the game itself was the fact fans were allowed back into the London Stadium for the first time since a 3-1 victory over Southampton back in February.
Although there were only 2,000 home supporters in the ground, they immediately energised the team and there was simple pleasure to be had in just hearing the genuine boos aimed at Edinson Cavani when he went down looking for a free-kick, or the authentic jeers towards Pogba for a poor touch by the edge of the pitch
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“I think the crowd were great,” Moyes continued. “They got really behind us.
“But I think that the players played really well and I hope they enjoyed it. I mean, I know we won’t have enjoyed the result and maybe the way it sort of petered out at the end.
“But overall, we have to say that we kept going and the third goal was the killer because even at 2-1 we were still right in the game.
“But the third goal just made it that more difficult.”
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