Billy Sharp baffled by Wilfried Gnonto penalty incident in Leeds United draw v Norwich City
Billy Sharp believes Leeds United would have been awarded a penalty for a foul on Wilfried Gnonto against Norwich had the game been at Elland Road.
The Whites and Canaries played out a stale 0-0 draw in their playoff semi-final first leg clash on Sunday 12 May, but the biggest incident came early in the first-half when Gnonto was brought down by Borja Sainz and nothing was given by the referee Josh Smith.
Speaking during their half-time analysis live on Sky Sports (12 May), David Prutton asked the panel their thoughts on the incident and they were surprised a foul wasn’t awarded.
“It’s certainly a foul,” Lockyer said. “I don’t know if it’s a penalty or not but it’s certainly a foul.
“I wouldn’t like to say but maybe 30 minutes into the game that gets given. Because it was so early I’m not sure what the ref is thinking.”
That led to Billy Sharp interrupting and sharing his verdict too.
“I think if that’s at Elland Road it gets given, yeah,” he said. “Obviously for the final they would have had VAR anyway.
“But like Tom said, I think the referee was a bit unsure so he’s obviously not given it but initially it looked like a foul and a penalty. Like Tom says, it’s definitely a foul.”
Leeds United must be better at Elland Road to reach playoff final
As much as the team can look at this incident and feel hard done by, because it was most definitely a foul, they weren’t really good enough overall to come away with a win.
Neither team really threatened the opposition goalkeeper at all over the 90 minutes and both teams will be happy with the clean sheet, which sets up the second leg nicely.
But in a fixture that now essentially becomes a one-off cup tie, Elland Road will be edgy as the game goes on without a goal and Leeds must be far better in that game if they want to reach Wembley.
Daniel Farke will feel that at some point the luck has to go in his side’s favour with a decision like this going against them a lot this season, but the overall performance will need to improve.
Victory and progression is still in their hands ahead of Thursday [16 May] and they know what they need to do now.
In other Leeds news, Andy Hinchcliffe was stunned by what he saw during the draw with Norwich.
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