Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher believes that referee Peter Bankes was correct with his decisions during West Ham United’s 1-1 draw with Southampton at St Mary’s.
The main talking points of the stalemate in Hampshire came from two decisions in the first half which left West Ham boss David Moyes frustrated.
Saints’ opening goal came in the first 45 when Romain Perraud’s shot from distance deflected off Ben Johnson to give Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side the lead. However, in the build-up to it, after Tomas Soucek failed to clear at the end of a Kyle Walker-Peters long throw, Jarrod Bowen went to tackle Perraud but was blocked in doing so by Bankes before scoring.
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Speaking on Match of the Day 2, former England centre-back Martin Keown and midfielder Danny Murphy both felt the goal should have been disallowed. However, ex-Premier League referee Gallagher, who took charge of 261 top-flight games between 1992 and 2007, feels that because the referee did not touch the ball, he had no grounds to overturn the goal.
“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,” Gallagher told Ref Watch on Sky Sports.
“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.”
West Ham also felt in the first half they should have had a penalty when Soucek was grappled to the floor by Perraud at the end of a corner, with Perraud not actually looking at the ball, instead focusing on Soucek.
Gallagher said that Perraud ran the risk of giving away a penalty, but felt that the foul was not strong enough for VAR official Simon Hooper to send Bankes to his pitchside monitor and potentially award a spot-kick.
“If you're going to do this kind of thing you run the risk, if you get penalised so be it,” Gallagher added. “The referee didn't penalise and I can't see VAR really on that occasion sending him to the monitor.”
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