David Moyes slammed referee Peter Bankes for a “ridiculous” block on Jarrod Bowen and claimed the VAR official had to “go to Specsavers” after West Ham drew at Southampton.
The furious Hammers boss said Romain Perraud’s first-half goal should have been disallowed because the referee stopped Jarrod Bowen playing the ball. And the Scot then claimed the Frenchman was guilty of a “Judo move” on Tomas Soucek which should have led to a penalty as he questioned the eye-sight of VAR official Simon Hooper.
Declan Rice scored a second half equaliser. But Moyes seethed: "How have we not got three points? The real reason is the referee, the referee gets in the way of the ability for us to defend.
"The ball comes out and Jarrod Bowen goes to get the ball and the referee blocks Jarrod Bowen from getting to it and the boy scores from it. Ridiculous, it really is. The referee got in his way. Maybe you just have to say that the referee was in a really bad position.
“It might be a bounced ball between the two teams but you can’t get in the way of somebody getting it and allowing it to go and it ends up a goal. I asked him about it, but I spoke to him more about the penalty kick. The penalty kick on Tomas Soucek is a judo move by the player who is marking him.
"There must be new rules in football, so you should check out the new rules which are that you can grab them right around the waist and you can hold them and then you can put them in a judo move, where you slam them down.
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"He gets him and throws him right down, it’s unreal. It’s not the referee, it is VAR. Whoever was on VAR today needs to go to Specsavers”
Meanwhile, Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl admitted a draw wasn't enough as his side remained in the Premier League relegation zone. Southampton did end a run of four consecutive defeats, but have yet to keep a clean sheet in 16 matches and the pressure will only increase on the Austrian if they are unable to quickly pick up some wins.
He said: "One point is not enough. I think when you lead and give it away, it's not good, but we had problems in the second half with closing them down. We defended 20 set-pieces today against a good side, it's not so easy.
"We threw everything in but footballing wise in the second half we can play much better. First half was OK I think, but we need the second or third goal and the chances were there in the first half. No clean sheet again but the pressure from the opponent in the second half was high."
