David Moyes sent off after appearing to kick ball at ball boy during West Ham defeat

Reuben Pinder

He has since apologised

David Moyes was sent off during West Ham’s Europa League defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday night after appearing to kick a ball towards a ball boy.

It was the Hammers’ second expulsion of the night, after Aaron Cresswell was given his marching orders after a VAR check in the 19th minute for a sloppy challenge on Jens Petter Hauge.

West Ham then conceded in the 26th minute, leaving themselves a mountain to climb if they were to reach the Europa League final.

Obviously disappointed by flow of the game, Hammers boss Moyes let out his frustration in a less than ideal manner, when he appeared to boot a ball with some vigour towards a ball boy.

Another red card for West Ham…

This time it's for David Moyes! 😳

The manager smashes the ball back in anger and is sent down the tunnel… #UEL pic.twitter.com/YYTZrqp2dg

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) May 5, 2022

Presumably annoyed by the delay and wanting to get the game going in a hurry, Moyes let his anger boil over and was lucky his strike narrowly missed the ball boy.

Newly surfaced footage of the incident shows how close it the ball came to hitting him.

Nå viste svenske Viasat bilder. Moyes er nære å dryle ballen på volley hardt i bakhodet på et barn. For en regelrett skam og absolutt ingenting annet. https://t.co/v8d8Sf7T3Y pic.twitter.com/lxul4bQh0V

— Per-Jarle Heggelund (@heggelund7) May 5, 2022

Speaking after the game, Moyes apologised for the incident, saying: “I kicked a ball back at the ball boy, so I apologise for that. But he threw it very softly at me.”

Despite these two unfortunate red cards, West Ham remained solid enough, matching Frankfurt’s shot tally despite having just 36 per cent of the possession.

After the game, Irons captain Declan Rice voiced his frustration with some of the officiating, while acknowledging that Cresswell’s sending off was fair.

Speaking to BT Sport, he said: “I think it’s an overlook of the whole game and the decisions that were made to be honest with you.

“Obviously, the sending off was probably a sending off looking back at it, but some of the other decisions were poor tonight.

“Nothing seemed to go for us, the referee seemed to make every decision go for them and in the end, when you’ve got someone who’s against you, you can’t really do much.”