Former Millwall and Crystal Palace stars agree West Ham were denied a clear penalty against Burnley

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Former Premier League strikers Dion Dublin and Glenn Murray have suggested that West Ham United were wrongly denied a penalty against Burnley.

Speaking on Match of the Day 2 as cited by West Ham Zone, both Dublin and Murray were in complete agreement that The Hammers should have had a penalty when Dwight McNeil brought down Craig Dawson in the penalty area.

Murray, a former Brighton and Crystal Palace striker, left nothing ambiguous in his argument that West Ham should have been awarded a penalty, saying: “It’s an obvious penalty for me.

“Dawson hasn’t got control of the ball but you can’t just kick an opponent…

“He’s (Dawson) sort of shielding it out but this angle here, McNeil goes to kick the ball, he just can’t do that for me.

“I think that is a stonewall penalty.”

Dublin, a Premier League goal centurion who has played for Aston Villa, Coventry, Manchester United and Millwall, was inclined to agree.

He said: “The difficulty about that one is Dawson is in the air, he hasn’t got control of the ball, but he still gets kicked in the box.”

This decision comes as yet another controversial decision this weekend, with James Maddison being awarded a soft penalty in Leicester City’s 4-0 thrashing of Newcastle and Joao Moutinho being deemed guilty of handball when the ball was shown on replays to not even touch the midfielder’s arm during his sides 1-0 loss to Manchester City.

Regardless of the feelings of the two MOTD2 pundits, a penalty was not awarded. And West Ham subsequently went on to draw the game 0-0, failing to maintain their three point gap over fifth place Manchester United ahead of a hectic Christmas schedule.

Up next for West Ham is a trip to North London to face Arsenal, who have hit an inconsistent patch of form in the last few weeks, but remain dangerous as seen in there 3-0 demolition of Southampton on Saturday.

A win for The Gunners on Wednesday evening will push West Ham out of the top four, with Arsenal overtaking them by a point.

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