David Moyes makes ‘very lucky’ Newcastle United claim - Eddie Howe thinks it’s ‘incredibly harsh’

West Ham United manager David Moyes believes Newcastle United midfielder Bruno Guimaraes was “very lucky” to avoid a red card during Sunday’s Premier League fixture.

The Brazilian was shown a yellow card just before the midway point at the London Stadium before avoiding a second booking just over a minute later for a challenge on James Ward-Prowse.

The Hammers led 1-0 at the time through Tomas Soucek’s seventh-minute opener before United turned the game on its head on the hour-mark with a brace from Alexander Isak.

Mohammed Kudus earned the hosts a point with an 89th-minute strike but Moyes voiced his displeasure at two decisions. The first was the Guimaraes incident and the second was the free-kick that led to Isak’s equaliser.

Moyes said: “Tactically we found it a little bit difficult to deal with Trippier’s situation down the right but it might have got away with us a little bit and I wouldn’t blame them with the referee’s decision for the free-kick that led to the first goal.

“I think on another day it wouldn’t have been given but I’ve got to be more disappointed by how we defended it. That was pretty harsh on us, as was the decision that could have been a second yellow card.

“ I don’t know. I’m not going to say anything as I might get in trouble. I just thought it was a really close call. You [journalist] watch football so you can make a decision if you think it was or wasn’t.

While Moyes refrained from commenting during his post-match press conference, the Scot told BBC Sport Guimaraes was lucky to avoid a second caution.

“I don’t think it is a free-kick [for Newcastle’s first goal]. I’m really disappointed with a few decisions today,” he said. “The two goals we concede are terrible, so they are bigger faults. We are not here to talk about the referees but their player [Bruno Guimaraes] is very lucky not to see a second yellow.”

Moyes’ opposite number Eddie Howe disagreed and believes a red card would have been “incredibly harsh”.

“I don’t think we could have taken him off to be honest,” said the Newcastle head coach.

We were struggling for players in that position. I think it was one of those for Bruno that he’s made two challenges in very quick succession. The speed of those challenges coming together probably makes them look worse than they are.

“I didn’t think the second one was a yellow at all. I think it would have been incredibly harsh. I thought he managed himself really well from that moment until the end of the game.