Both of Liverpool’s penalties were marginal calls and the Hammers’ own equaliser was more than controversial.
“The talking points were the wrong talking points, if I’m honest,” Sam told West Ham TV following the game. “I can be disappointed if we lose because the opposition have outplayed you, but I can’t today. It was one of those game when we needed to be at our best, and I thought we were.
“It’s a game where we really challenged Liverpool, but across the board the controlling factors and managers of the game are the officials and I don’t think they managed this game very well at all. It’s left me feeling a deep regret and sadness because we don’t want games decided by decisions that were incorrect.
“I know it looked like Andy has fouled the keeper, but bizarrely the referee gave the goal and the assistant flagged up from 35 yards away and you never see that, so why is that? Then, with five minutes to go, the assistant was five yards away from Matt Jarvis being fouled and he didn’t give but the referee did.
“Communication between the officials is something we have talked about at League Managers’ Association level, saying that they need to be a threesome and be together all season so the communication and understanding gets better. It’s clear it’s a big problem for us, because it doesn’t happen, and they are still part-time and do their job and go home.
“At this level, it’s all right having goal-line technology which has made some fantastic decisions, but some of the decisions made by the officials are not.”