Newcastle United and West Ham United were involved in the game of the season yesterday at St James' Park.
The game had everything, seven goals, a red card, contentious refereeing decisions and injuries galore. There was barely a moment to rest and so much to discuss, it should have been a pundits' dream.
However, Match of the Day, hosted by Alex Scott alongside Martin Keown and Stephen Warnock, spent hardly any time breaking down the game, and the things they did choose to focus on were barely even worthwhile mentioning.
From a Newcastle point of view, it was horrendous by the BBC team as they chose to focus on Newcastle's defence, seemingly ignoring the fact that they just put on one of the greatest comebacks in recent history.
It just smacked of laziness. Almost like they were overwhelmed by how much there was to cover so they just decided to not bother at all and simply rolled out the age-old criticisms that could have applied to almost any game this season.
Meanwhile, West Ham fans were shocked to find that absolutely no time was spent covering the penalty decisions. David Moyes and the Hammers fans were adamant that the second penalty shouldn't have stood, and seeing the debate online from pundits and fans, there are a lot of points to discuss around it.
It was an open goal for a bit of discourse in the studio that would have made for compelling viewing, but instead, they chose to not even bring it to anyone's attention.
As I said in the post-match write-up, I felt that the decision to award Newcastle a penalty, while gratefully accepted, was probably a bit harsh on West Ham. Gordon just stuck his foot between Kalvin Phillips' foot and the ball giving him no option but to kick him - it was clever by Gordon, careless by Phillips but also probably unavoidable. Had it gone against us we'd have been livid, and seeing a similar one not given in the game between Bournemouth and Everton, it just shows how lucky we were.
We dare bet that had Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards been on duty on MOTD last night they'd have launched into a big discussion about it.
Fans were quick to point out the poor show on X calling out the lack of coverage as "poor" and one fan going all-in:
"Sorry, you don’t think that the second penalty was worth a bit of a chat between the analysts? Is this your first day? It’s the moment that swung the game."
Check out this debate in the ESPN studio with Shaka Hislop, Steve Nichol and Frank Leboeuf going at it. This is what should have happened on Match of the Day.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
14 | 18 | 35 |
2 |
Chelsea
|
15 | 17 | 31 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
15 | 14 | 29 |
4 |
Manchester City
|
15 | 6 | 27 |
5 |
Nottingham Forest
|
15 | 1 | 25 |
6 |
Aston Villa
|
15 | 0 | 25 |
7 |
Brighton
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
8 |
Bournemouth
|
15 | 3 | 24 |
9 |
Brentford
|
15 | 3 | 23 |
10 |
Fulham
|
15 | 2 | 23 |
11 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
15 | 12 | 20 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
15 | -2 | 20 |
13 |
Manchester United
|
15 | 1 | 19 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
15 | -8 | 18 |
15 |
Everton
|
14 | -7 | 14 |
16 |
Leicester
|
15 | -9 | 14 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
15 | -6 | 13 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
15 | -13 | 9 |
19 |
Wolves
|
15 | -15 | 9 |
20 |
Southampton
|
15 | -20 | 5 |