⚽ Luton v West Ham - Official Match Thread

[charleyfarley]

. ........... V Keniworth Rd Fri 1st Sept 20:00 GMT VAR Steve Meredith Paul Tierney: (30) - 115 2 Kaminski, Bell, Burke, Andersen, Doughty, Giles, Nakamba, Barkley, Chong, Morris ©, Adebayo Subs: Krul, Ogbene, Berry, Woodrow, Kaboré, Mpanzu, Brown, Johnson, Francis-Clarke Areola, Coufal, Zouma ©, Aguerd, Emerson, Álvarez, Ward-Prowse, Bowen, Paquetá, Benrahma, Antonio Subs: Fabiański (GK), Cresswell, Kehrer, Ogbonna, Fornals, Cornet, Kudus, Ings, Mubama Luton 100/30: Draw 13/5 : West Ham 4/5 .

[ironsofcanada]

Surf Sorry busy day. According to them, he - Antonio - was offside when the pass to him from the wing was hit. He was sauntering back from an offside position. So he was active in the play. That said, I went back and watched my recording. As said, they didn't draw the lines and from one angle a more central defender was playing him on and another had him clearly off. The second looked like it came "a guy with an iPhone in row Z " to quote someone in the media. In short, he was offside in principle, I guess.

[VirginiaHam]

SurfaceAgentX2Zero wrote... The AR gave it as offside, but no lines were drawn. MA was wearing white socks, so that made him more easily identifiable. So, no real answer on that issue. However.......MA played the ball back to Emerson with his left foot, which was comfortably onside...... Is that really offside? I have no idea.

[SurfaceAgentX2Zero]

He wasn't offfside when he passed to Emerson though, was he? I fully accept that I no longer have a scoobie how it works.

[ironsofcanada]

Surf Pretty active in that he laid it off to Emerson.

[SurfaceAgentX2Zero]

Why was Antonio offside? I get that he was in an offside position, and even that he was interfering with play, but he wasn't 'active' was he? Or have they changed the law back to how it was?

[chim chim cha boo]

Oh, and as someone who was at 'the St Valentines day massacre' and has read (and reread) Robert Banks' 'An irrational hatred of Luton' I enjoyed our performance immensely. So come on Billy Bragg, hit us with your wisdom and feelings about Friday night mate. I'm genuinely interested to hear what you thought.

[chim chim cha boo]

What REALLY fucks me off about VAR is when they spend 7 or 8 minutes forensically trying to mark your goal offside against the 'big teams' and don't even LOOK at the goals scored against you contentiously.

[chim chim cha boo]

A ball gets whipped into the box from a corner in injury time and the box is full of lumps defending and attacking equally as though their lives depend on it Are you or anyone sane going to jump into that mêlée with your arms behind your back? It's virtually a fucking fight. SURELY some sort of common sense has ro find it's way to Stockley Park and asks the question 'did JWP deliberately cheat to gain his team an advantage or was it a genuine accident '? Even the FA has to get it right sometimes.

[Manuel]

Like I said, nobody knows any longer, which is why it's just totally random what is given and what isn't with zero consistency. A mess.

[bruuuno]

UNATURALLY BIGGER

[RichyP]

Taken from FA website: ‘It is an offence if a player touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation.’ It’s too subjective to say for sure that the position of ward prowse’s arm wasnt justifiable and a consequence of his body movement. All players use their arms to generate extra lift when jumping. Which is why the ref’s decision wasn’t overturned. I also think if he had given the pen it wouldn’t have been overturned either as I doubt it would have been deemed a clear and obvious error the other way

[arsene york-hunt]

Had VAR looked carefully it would have been a free kick to West Ham for a foul on JWP just before the ball hit his arm.

[Manuel]

Nobody knows what the handball rule is now, therefore nobody knows if it was 'handball' or not, and I'm no being sarcastic. No one has a scooby.

[Willtell]

In the real world it was NOT a handball. It was the ball getting deflected onto JWP's hand by accident. The ref never gave it and VAR is there to assist the ref. My guess is they decided sensibly the ref's first decision was correct. The problem is when idiots get authority to make rules that are stupidly unfair in an attempt to bring consistency to decisions. Human beings will always see things like that differently to each other.

[Boycie]

nychammer 4:58 Sat Sep 2 I don’t think it was a possible pen. It was a pen. If that was against us we’d be going mental. I seriously don’t know what goes on with VAR I suppose with that fuckwit Mike Deans event comments helps explain. Laudable foolproof system run by cunts

[Willtell]

I think Soucek is very mobile! I hear that he' is usually the most mobile of our team. He covers and blocks everywhere. The problem is his lack of ball playing and passing skills.

[Westham67]

Missed his height he is 6 ft 4. I hope Moyes doesn't start Soucek for City he is not mobile enough

[VirginiaHam]

Boycie 1:27 Sat Sep 2 I was certain the game at Luton was going to be ghastly. Small pitch and a healthy dose of claustrophobia plus howling fans. The first goal was important for us, and apart from a crap 15 minute patch in the second half we prevailed. From a team perspective, that was a big game to get through. Paqueta continues to look like a street yob who's brilliant at football. What a player. Bet he's a bit cunty on the pitch too.

[daveyg]

Sum Agree about Paqueta. A few minutes before he put that peach of a ball for Bowen to score he tried something similar,didn't work but he knew what he was trying. The defence of Aguerd,Zouma and Coufal probably had their best game for a long time. Emerson was a bit suspect and he won't get away with that in Europe or against City. The team worked well together but it wasn't a perfect performance. Thought Bowen was a bit off with his crossing,that's the problem when he's running down the right,he won't cross on the run. Subs were poor,would have been good to see Kudus run at their defence,that would have taken the pressure off. JWP was solid alongside Alvarez and they seem to have a good early understanding. Massive week after the break. Whole squad will have tobe utilised, a difficult task for the Mòyes.

[Keep dreaming]

Moyes own words It’s a job dealing with them. You have to deal with the balls up and the knock-downs and I think we missed Tomáš Souček for his stature. From that point of view, as the game went on we were struggling a little bit more. But we got a brilliant three points tonight.” Missed Soucek, what an idiot

[J.Riddle]

gph 2:00 Sat Sep 2 0-1 Paqueta with a worldly to make Peps jaw drop!

[J.Riddle]

gph 2:00 Sat Sep 2 0-1 Paqueta with a worldly to make Peps jaw drop!

[nychammer]

i was really hoping we wouldn't be their first home game back in the big time after the atrocity at Forest last season, but we handled it well and over the course of the game we were the better side, despite the late scare and VAR oversight for that possible penalty. If there's one criticism its that we have to put games like that against a poor side to bed sooner and not leave ourselves open to the sucker punch. All is well tho, the result is what matters and we can go into the city and dippers games worry free, in form and with some real hope of getting something from them.

[boleyn8420]

Not willing to pay to buy a striker is criminal. They bought good players in, Alvarez and JWP both excellent and maybe Kudus will be a revelation. But Antonio's hamstrings are one twang away from us not having a striker up front. Shame as the other incoming have been excellent.

[kylay]

I don't have an issue with Soucek getting the nod over benrhama especially against man City. I think paquets did a better job on the left. If kudus is half the player he's made out to be, I'd like to see him although I don't think he plays on the left.