West Ham manager Slaven Bilic couldn’t blame referee Adrien Jaccottet for sending off James Collins after his side threw away a two-goal lead to Romanian side Astra Giurgiu.

Enner Valencia opened the scoring in the first half and Mauro Zarate doubled the just after the break. But James Collins’s sending off midway through the second half allowed Astra back into the game and goals from Fernando Boldrin and an Angelo Ogbonna own goal made the return leg more interesting than it should have been.

Collins’s red card was the Hammers third in five games but Bilic felt this one was different to the others.

He said: “Three red cards in three rounds is too much. But this one was completely different to the others and I think it was harsh.

“I can’t blame the referee for the decision. I can’t blame James Collins because the situation was very dangerous. He was left in a position one against one close to the box.”

Bilic himself was sent off in injury time for complaining about foul on man-of-the-match Dimitri Payet.

“He [Jaccottet] had a reason to give [Collins] a second yellow. But if that was a yellow card then that foul on Dimitri Payet was definitely a yellow and it would have been that players second yellow card.

“So I wasn’t happy about that and I reacted. I didn’t swear and he just told me that I can’t shout at him.”

Despite a poor start, West Ham began to show their class and after a number of half chances Valencia opened the scoring midway through the first half.

The goalscorer was unable to add to his tally though as he was went down with a serious looking injury 10 minutes before the break and had to be taken off on a stretcher, with Bilic saying after that he was very “worried” for the striker.

Zarate nearly doubled the lead just before the break but his curling effort was superbly tipped over by Silviu Lung.

The Hammers started the second half much sharper and doubled the lead after only five minutes. A wonderful solo run from Zarate was finished neatly with his left foot and left the Romanian side with a huge mountain to climb.

They were handed a lifeline when Collins was sent off for picking up two very silly bookings in the space of four minutes.

And it was taken from Boldrin. His left-footed curling effort had Adrian beaten, going in via the crossbar.

The away side continued to grow with the Hammers desperately holding on with 10 men and the numerical advantage paid dividends when a hopeful through ball was converted into West Ham’s goal by Ogbonna.

And Bilic was sent to the stands in the dying minutes to cap off a terrible evening for the Hammers.