West Ham had their recent poor disciplinary record laid bare again on Thursday as both defender James Collins and manager Slaven Bilic were sent off in a 2-2 draw with Astra Giurgiu.
The Hammers looked to be cruising after goals from Enner Valencia and Mauro Zarate gave them a two-goal lead in their Europa League third qualifying round fixture – but after Collins became the third West Ham player to be sent off in Bilic’s first five games, Astra rallied and will defend a draw in Romania .
Fernando Boldrin’s wonderful goal brought the visitors back into the tie before debutant Angelo Ogbonna scored an unfortunate own-goal to level the match.
Bilic was then sent from the dug-out in injury-time as frustrations boiled over, with the Croatian – whose Besiktas side picked up more red cards in the Super Lig than any other team last season – admitting the recent discipline at West Ham has not been good enough.
“We gave three red cards in three rounds – it is too much,” said Bilic.
“This one was totally different than the one in Andorra with (Diafra) Sakho or (James) Tomkins in Malta.
“This was professional and it was too harsh to be fair but I can’t blame the referee for the decision and I can’t blame James Collins for that, the situation was very dangerous.”
Talking about his own dismissal, Bilic added: “I just said to referee that I wasn’t very happy with the situation.
“If that (the second Collins booking) was a yellow card then a foul on Dimitri Payet was also a yellow and would have been that player’s second yellow.
“I wasn’t happy with that and I reacted with him (the referee). I did not swear. He just said I couldn’t shout.
“They (Astra) have a good result. If we play like we did in the first 60 minutes next week we definitely have a chance to go through, but if we are going to get another red card it is better we stay here.’’
West Ham have made heavy weather of the early qualifying rounds, having been taken to penalties by Maltese outfit Birkirkara last week.
Next week’s return fixture against Giurgiu comes just three days before they open their Premier League season away at Arsenal.