Joel Piroe rages over ‘unlucky’ Leeds v Millwall incident – Ex-PGMOL chief
Joel Piroe was raging in the first half as Leeds beat Millwall 2-0 at Elland Road on Wednesday night.
Daniel Farke saw his men move back to the top of the Championship with three points against Alex Neil’s side after dropping down to second the night before due to Sheffield United’s draw with Bristol City.
A third-minute own goal by what seemed to be Millwall goalkeeper Lukas Jensen and a late strike by Ao Tanaka secured the win for the Whites.
But the game could have gone a lot smoother for the West Yorkshire side.
Piroe goal disallowed as Keith Hackett reacts to incident
Piroe thought he’d scored his 16th Championship goal of the season just after the half-hour mark at Elland Road when he linked up superbly with Brenden Aaronson.
The ex-Swansea forward went away to celebrate in front of the Leeds fans but little did he know that the assistant referee raised his flag a second or two before he found the back of the net.
Replays showed that Aaronson was just about level with the last line of Millwall’s defence before he played in Piroe.
| Joel Piroe’s stats | |
| Appearances (starts) | 37 (27) |
| Goals | 15 |
| Assists | 6 |
| Yellow cards | 1 |
| Red cards | 0 |
Keith Hackett thought it was a very tight call and one that should have really been given in favour of the attacking side.
“The assistant referee is in a brilliant position in line with the second rearmost defender,” the former PGMOL general manager told MOT Leeds News.
“It is a tight call. Frankly, the attacker looked to be level and I would like to see in these situations the benefit of the doubt being given to the attacker and the goal allowed.
“Leeds United can feel unlucky in this situation.”
Leeds march on – but Piroe won’t be pleased
Piroe was probably fuming because he thought there was no way he was offside when he scored his goal.
However, he quickly realised that the offside was given for Aaronson and that kind of quelled his protests.
Unfortunately for the striker, he’ll be annoyed at replays showing that Aaronson was in line with a Millwall defender.