Antonio reckons he was “rag-dolled” all night against AZ last week and acted like a child.
Mikey Antonio admits he was in very poor form against AZ Alkmaar before scoring a winner in last week’s first leg match of the Conference semi final at the London Stadium.
He prodded home the winner after the Dutch team had opened the scoring before the equaliser flew in from the Hammers.
But he had been unable to make any impression at all until then and was left embarrassed before the manager ultimately decided to sub him for Danny Ings.
Thirty three year old Mike has found the net 15 times this season and heads the Irons scoring chart ahead of Jarrod Bowen and Said Benrahma, who are on 11 goals each.
However, David Moyes revealed he had planned to take Antonio off moments before the striker scored the winner, but Antonio admits he struggled throughout the first leg against AZ.
On The Footballer’s Football Podcast with Callum Wilson, the Newcastle United striker brought up a conversation he had with an unnamed person who said Antonio was “getting ragged around all game, getting dashed about by the centre-backs” against AZ in the first leg.
Antonio responded: “It was the truth. I was getting rag-dolled. It was embarrassing. I was getting rag-dolled all over the pitch, I am going to be honest. But, 90 per cent of them were fouls and the referee was giving me nothing, so if the referee is going to give me nothing there is nothing I can do.
“I was getting rag-dolled about, everyone was moaning at me, the gaffer [Moyes] was saying you’ve got to do better, I’m like ‘mate, the man has run into my back with two hands, there’s nothing I can actually do’. He was like ‘No, you’ve got to deal with it. He ain’t giving you nothing so you’ve got to deal with it’. Okay, no problem.
“It got to the stage where I was getting frustrated, I started sitting on the floor like a child. I was like, ‘ref, you’ve got to sort me out’. But, obviously, I got my goal. I don’t care. I’m not going to lie, if I did get dragged [off] five minutes earlier I’d have probably deserved it.”