Duff red was harsh, says West Ham boss Allardyce

Sam Allardyce admits Burnley were unfortunate to be reduced to 10 men, but feels his West Ham side were good value for Saturday’s 1-0 Premier League win.

In a tight Upton Park encounter it was West Ham who came out on top against rock-bottom Burnley when Mark Noble kept his cool from 12 yards after Michael Duff had felled Cheikhou Kouyate in the penalty area in the 24th minute.

Referee Jon Moss surprised many, though, when he produced a red card for veteran centre-back Duff, despite Burnley seemingly having players covering, with defeat leaving the Lancashire club on the brink of relegation. 

“It looked unfortunate, yes,” manager Allardyce said. “I think the penalty is no doubt and converting that penalty was very important because the last time we had a penalty was in the first game of the season and we missed it.

“It was important because we didn’t score any more goals and we should have scored more but didn’t. We had 27 attempts and scored one off the penalty, so it shows you we’ve been lacklustre in front of goal.”

West Ham felt they should have had a second spot-kick in the second half went Stewart Downing went to ground under a challenge from Kieran Trippier, only for Moss to book the England international for simulation.

Allardyce added: “I think there’s no doubt there’s been many more penalties that we should have had this season. 

“I haven’t seen Downing’s yet for simulation. I’ll see if that should have been a penalty, but the most important thing with that is it hasn’t cost us the result.

“If the referee does make a mistake you have to ask ‘what has it cost you?’ If that was another penalty it hasn’t cost us anything, which is important.”