West Ham's Taty Castellanos accused of spitting at Millwall goalkeeper during heated derby
The alleged incident happened in the 65th minute of the tense match at the Den on Saturday afternoon
Millwall goalkeeper Filip Marschall has accused West Ham striker Taty Castellanos of spitting at him during a tense meeting between the sides at The Den on Saturday afternoon.
Listen to this article
The alleged incident happened in the 65th minute, with Marschall, making his Championship debut, going on to make a complaint to match officials, including Premier League referee Paul Tierney.
West Ham were struggling at that point in the match, with Millwall holding a 2-0 lead.
Castellanos closed down Marschall as the goalkeeper attempted to keep possession before he launched the ball forward as the West Ham striker ran towards him.
The two players then clashed, with Marschall appearing to point at his shirt and signalling that the 23-year-old Castellanos had spat at him.
Reflecting on the incident after the match, Lions boss Alex Neil said: “I haven’t asked him about it, but it’s like anything else, I’m sure there’ll be footage of it, or not of it if it didn’t happen.
Read more: Metropolitan Police given special powers ahead of first Millwall v West Ham match in 14 years
“I’d be extremely surprised if Filip’s made an accusation and nothing’s happened. But that’s not really for me to deal with, I’m sure the authorities will deal with it.
“I didn’t know what had happened, I’d just seen Filip walking out with the ball and thinking, ‘Where’s he going?’
“And then the fourth official basically said that there was an accusation of spitting. So, yeah, I don’t know.”
Castellanos could face serious consequences if he is found to have spat at Marschall, including a potential six-match ban.
That could have a significant impact on the Hammers' hopes of being promoted back to the Premier League following their relegation last season.
West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo said: “I’m aware of the allegation, I didn’t see the images, I didn’t speak with Taty.
“I cannot go much further on that, I’m sorry. For me to answer that, I have to see it. I’m going to look at the images. I cannot answer.”
The match was the first time the two sides had met in nearly 15 years, with the Saturday's meeting ending in a 2-2 draw.
Millwall took control before half time, with Caleb Taylor and Camiel Neghli putting the Lions 2-0 ahead as West Ham struggled to cope with the intense atmosphere at The Den.
The Hammers came out stronger after the break and fought their way back into the game through goals from Mohamadou Kante and Konstantinos Mavropanos.
West Ham then appeared to have the better chance of finding a winner before Kante was handed a red card for pulling back fellow substitute Kyrell Lisbie as he raced through on goal.
Nuno added: “Clearly the first half we didn’t do well in the game, we didn’t start well, we were not precise and lost balls.
“We didn’t deal with the physicality of Millwall, they are so good and so strong.”
Neil has been dealing with a host of injuries, and it was little surprise to see the hosts tire towards the end.
“Mixed emotions,” he said. “Unbelievable effort from the players, but I thought we ran out of steam as the game wore on. We had a lack of options and freshness.
“We were 2-0 up and it probably should have been more. We’re disappointed, but it’s funny how football works.
“If we’d scored a second goal late on I think we’d be buzzing. The atmosphere was electric and the fans were brilliant. I’m disappointed for them.”