LONDON: West Ham United manager David Moyes said it was his decision for substitute Mark Noble to take the missed penalty in the 2-1 defeat by Manchester United in the Premier League on Sunday.
Jesse Lingard snatched all three points against former club West Ham with a vicious 89th-minute strike into the top corner after Cristiano Ronaldo had cancelled out Said Benrahma's opener in the first half.
The visitors had to cling on for the victory and were let off the hook when goalkeeper David de Gea saved the 94th-minute penalty from Noble, who Moyes hauled on from the bench immediately after Luke Shaw had been penalised for handball.
Noble had only missed four of 42 career penalties before Sunday and Moyes said he had no regrets about the decision.
“Not at all, Mark Noble is one of the best penalty takers we’ve got, it was my decision. Sometimes they go your way sometimes they don't but you have to take the decisions,” Moyes told a news conference.
“I thought we had a really good penalty taker on the bench and if someone else had taken it and missed I’d have been more disappointed had I not taken that decision. That’s what happens, decision taking can either be right or wrong.”
Moyes said England coach Gareth Southgate’s ill-fated decision to bring on Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho to take penalties in the Euro 2020 final shootout defeat to Italy had gone through his mind.
Moyes had also considered De Gea’s poor record at saving penalties – the Spaniard had failed to save any of the previous 40 spot-kicks he had faced – before making the decision.
“It went through my mind quickly and I asked Mark and he said yes,” Moyes added.
“I felt that because of his record he was most suited. Mark Noble has an incredible record at penalties so I’m thinking Mark has come on, De Gea’s not saved many and hopefully this is the answer.”
The penalty drama aside, Moyes said he had been very impressed with his team’s performance.
“I thought we played really well, we were always in the game I always thought we had a chance and there were some really top performances from some of our players,” he said.
“We tried to go toe-to-toe with Man United and in truth we could have been talking about a really good game and a draw.”
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said he had expected Noble to score.
“I’ve seen Mark Noble score so many penalties, you did feel down and out and expected to come home with one point but luckily David has continued his good form,” said the Norwegian, whose side have won four of their five league games this season.
“We are very happy with the win and we deserved it.” – Reuters
