Graham Potter and Max Kilman both believe that Newcastle’s winning goal against West Ham should not have stood.
The Hammers were beaten 1-0 in their Premier League contest at the London Stadium on Monday night after Bruno Guimaraes volleyed home from a Harvey Barnes cross shortly after the hour mark.
There were some protests by West Ham’s players towards referee Michael Salisbury after the goal, with some of the belief that Alexander Isak had unfairly pushed Kilman in the back, stopping the defender from heading clear and instead allowing the delivery to reach Guimaraes.
The goal was given, though, and West Ham were unable to find their way back into the game as they slipped to a 13th league defeat of the season.
“We think it’s clear — it’s two hands on the back of the defender,” Potter said afterwards. “It’s a push. You can see by how Isak doesn’t celebrate that he thinks it’s a push. The ones that matter don’t, so that’s life.”
Kilman echoed his manager’s view, telling Sky Sports: “I jumped in the air and I felt a hard push. I’m an honest player, I wasn’t looking for anything. I felt like it was a foul and I think it should have been given, but that’s football and we need to move on.”
Asked whether West Ham captain Jarrod Bowen should have had a penalty for a supposed foul at the other end, Potter added: “There was a case for that, yes. But on a night when things don’t go your way, today it hasn’t. If the referee doesn’t see it, there’s nothing we can do now.”
Potter, whose side stay 16th in the table following the defeat by Newcastle, then said: “I feel for the players. It was a really committed performance.
“Newcastle came into it and are obviously a top team. The game ebbed and flowed a bit. We had our moments, they had theirs.
“The goal is frustrating from our perspective. We didn’t do enough to win the game. We can improve our attacking play, for sure.
“I don’t think we deserved to win the game, because we didn’t do enough.”
