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Gallagher gives thumbs up to West Ham VAR delay!

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By Hughie Southon

The awful wait for VAR officials to decide whether or not Nayef Aguerd’s winner against Southampton has drawn a ” nothing wrong with that” claim.

If you could have chosen one person to go along with a three minute 29 second delay in the game it would have been Dermot Gallagher…and so it turns out.

The fans were denied a celebration which would have been normal several years ago, instead being forced to wait as a result of this technology raising its ugly head.

The wait was the longest experienced in the league so far this season and only 16 seconds fewer than the longest VAR delay since the technology was introduced to the Premier League in August 2019.

That stood at three minutes and 45 seconds, when David McGoldrick had a goal disallowed for Sheffield United against Tottenham Hotspur.

Gallagher meanwhile reckons the opposite to most fans and pundits of course! Somethings never change.

We all say we don’t care how long it takes as long as we get it right,” he said on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch. “I refer you back to the Arsenal v Brentford game where the correct decision to disallow Brentford’s equaliser would have been reached had another 15 seconds been taken to spot a clear offside.

This was a difficult decision, there were players in the way. Peter Bankes took his time, three minutes and 29 seconds, to be precise. But it was correct, and goal was given. It was a massive decision because on the pitch it was disallowed for offside.

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

2 comments

  • Clive says:

    VAR is fine when it goes in our favour. It adds to the drama and you get to celebrate the goal twice instead of just once. When a VAR decision goes against us though, I can’t stand it.

  • Austrick says:

    I may be wearing claret and blue glasses but it took me all of 5 seconds to see it wasn’t offside- and that was without the lines!

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