Yesterday, West Ham’s YouTube channel uploaded a ‘behind the scenes’ video from Monday’s 2-0 win over Leeds at the London Stadium.
Of course, the incident which saw Luke Ayling trip Jesse Lingard inside the penalty box was included, and some interesting comments could be heard.
We can see the Leeds No.2 immediately proclaim his innocence to Mike Dean, shouting ‘I won the ball’ over and over again.
We can also hear Ayling repeating something else as Lingard lines up to take the spot-kick.
Talking in the direction of Dean, the former Bristol City man says: “Mike, mate, you’re never giving that the other way mate, not in a million years. Not in a million years. Not in a million years.”
It’s admirable to see Ayling defend himself so passionately, but we can’t agree with him.
He definitely makes contact with Lingard first.
One thing worth noting from behind-closed-doors football is that it’s fantastic to be able to hear what the players say out on the pitch.
In the raucous cauldron of a noisy football stadium, none of us would ever be able to hear what the players were saying to each other – not in a million years.
Don’t get us wrong – football without fans is awful, and we’re counting down the days until supporters can come back in full capacity.
However, one silver lining of it is that we are able to hear these kind of things.
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