West Ham assistant Kevin Nolan clashed with Neal Maupay in the tunnel at the London Stadium (Picture: Sky Sports)
Brentford wind-up merchant Neal Maupay was up to his old tricks again in the side’s 4-2 defeat to West Ham, with the striker drawing a furious reaction from Kevin Nolan at the half-time break.
Jarrod Bowen stole the show with his first hat-trick in senior football to help steer the Hammers to victory at the London Stadium and ease the pressure on David Moyes after a run of poor results.
Maupay had halved the deficit in a frantic opening 13 minutes in the capital, but Emerson Palmieri put the hosts out of sight with a thunderous long-range effort midway through the second half, shortly after Bowen’s third.
Yoane Wissa netted in the 82nd minute which made for a nervy closing period for the Irons’ home support, but Moyes’ men kept hold of their two-goal advantage to rise up to eighth in the Premier League table.
There was an unsavoury moment as the two teams emerged from the tunnel for the second half, with West Ham assistant Nolan having to be held back by Brentford’s Mathias Jorgensen while spitting feathers in Maupay’s direction.
Maupay has built a reputation for rubbing rival players and coaches up the wrong way this season, with Michail Antonio – a second-half substitute for West Ham on Monday night – recently labelling the Frenchman ‘the most disliked person on the field’.
During Sky Sports’ commentary of the game, former Manchester United and England defender Gary Neville revealed the possible reason Nolan was so furious with the Brentford forward.
Bowen went home with the match ball after an excellent hat-trick (Picture: Getty)
‘There was quite a bit going on at half-time as the players came back from the tunnel,’ Neville explained.
‘You can just see that Nolan’s having a right go at Maupay.
‘I think that the Brentford striker apparently, we believe, was outside the referee’s room and Nolan has taken offence to it.’
Maupay has developed a reputation for winding up the opposition (Picture: Getty)
Brentford manager Thomas Frank – who insisted he ‘didn’t see’ the altercation involving Maupay and Nolan – said West Ham’s hat-trick, Bowen, hero was ‘unplayable’ across the 90 minutes.
‘I think we didn’t hit our level individually or collectively today and we played a West Ham team that did well,’ Frank told Sky Sports in his post-match interview.
‘Bowen was unplayable and Emerson put it in the top corner so we lost the game fair and square.’
West Ham had failed to win any of their previous eight games since the turn of the year and Moyes couldn’t hide his delight with victory and the manner of the performance.
‘I’d hoped it was hoping. It was needed. I think our form over the last six weeks has been poor,’ the Hammers boss said.
‘I think prior to that we’ve been okay, I really do.
‘But we’ve had a pretty poor January and start of February so it was a really good result, good to score four goals, good to get a win at home and it just keeps us hanging in there.’
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