Nuno Espirito Santo angered by VAR calls as West Ham suffer crucial loss
The Hammers had a goal disallowed before Nottingham Forest scored a late winner from a disputed penalty.
Nuno Espirito Santo blamed two controversial VAR decisions for leaving West Ham staring down the barrel of relegation from the Premier League.
The Hammers’ survival hopes took another major blow after they slipped to a 2-1 defeat at home to fellow strugglers Nottingham Forest.
They were leading courtesy of a Murillo own goal and thought they had doubled their advantage when Crysencio Summerville lashed the ball home from the edge of the box.
However, a VAR check spotted new signing Taty Castellanos in an offside position, some time earlier, in the build-up.
It was a pivotal moment, as seconds later Forest equalised when Nicolas Dominguez met Elliot Anderson’s corner at the near post and his header looped up and over Kyle Walker-Peters at the far post.
“That was the crucial moment of the game, a two-goal lead. We were playing good, creating problems for Forest,” said Nuno.
“All the stadium felt the pain of the goal ruled out. Forest scored but we had chances to change it around.”
Worse was to come when, with two minutes remaining, goalkeeper Alphonse Areola came out to punch clear a corner and caught Morgan Gibbs-White in the face.
No Forest players appealed, yet the VAR sent referee Tony Harrington to the monitor and after he relayed the bad news to the home crowd, Gibbs-White lashed in the winner.
“I was a goalkeeper and you cannot stop your movement, you go for the ball – it has a trajectory and a line,” added Nuno.
“How many times you see this happen and nothing given. Not in my days and not today, it should not be given.
“That is how I see it. We have the referee, the VAR and we have to accept. For me it is not a penalty.”
Soucek, who headed the ball clear before Areola caught Gibbs-White, fumed on Sky Sports: “It’s a joke, I just saw it.
“I came to the Premier League because it was the best league in the world and it’s more like basketball. Areola went for the ball and we didn’t know why VAR were looking at it.”
Yet ultimately West Ham came off second best to a team just as bad as them and where the gap to safety would have been just one point with a victory over Sean Dyche’s side, it is now seven.
“It is a big gap but it is not over,” said Nuno, unconvincingly. “We have to keep believing, working hard and chasing this good run that we need.”
Victory ended Forest’s run of four straight defeats which had threatened to drag them back into trouble.
“Delighted with the result,” said boss Sean Dyche. “There was a lot of noise around the game and rightly so.
“But overall we deserved it with the mentality of the players. It can’t always be beautiful.”
