By George Overhill

3rd Sep, 2022 | 6:05pm

BT pundits in hysterics as Leeds United concede soft penalty at Brentford

Former referee Peter Walton disputed the penalty awarded to Brentford against Leeds United while the BT Sport panel of pundits laughed him down.

In what turned out to be a dreadful afternoon for the Whites in west London, the scoring was opened by Ivan Toney from the spot after Luis Sinisterra was adjudged to have fouled him on video review.

Rob Jones was sent to the monitor by the VAR and subsequently awarded a penalty, after both players stretched for a loose ball and the Colombian winger was seen to have impeded the striker.

Walton disagreed that it was a penalty and didn’t see the review as necessary, leading to mockery from the pundits who felt it was a foul and a chorus of laughter when a review was called for and the decision eventually made.

Speaking live on BT Sport Score on Saturday afternoon (3 September, 3.27pm) he said: “I don’t think it was a handball… and the foul there was just a coming together of two players. I don’t think this will be given… You’d want it if you were a forward, as a defender you think you’re being strong.

As Jones was sent to the monitor Robbie Savage shouted over laughter from Chris Sutton, saying: “Ha ha! Peter!”

“I don’t know what he’s going over for… I still don’t think it should be given,” Walton responded.

Sutton said: “Outside the box, Peter, is that a foul?”

Then Rachel Brown-Finnis added: “It’s not the pull, it’s the way he dives in and he doesn’t get the ball.”

Aaron McClean agreed, saying: “If you’re going to dive in like that you have to make sure you make contact with the ball. If you don’t make contact with the ball and you obstruct the striker it’s a penalty.”

The foul is then given and in the face of laughter from the pundits Walton gives up and says: “Yeah I thought it was going to be a penalty.”

Floodgates opened

Given how badly the defence played at the Brentford Community Stadium it is difficult to say that this made all the difference to the result.

But at 0-0 the opener is always crucial and it certainly didn’t look a clear cut decision, so the rage that built up inside Jesse Marsch when a second-half challenge of a similar level on Crysencio Summerville didn’t result in a penalty may have been justified.

It might also explain the baffling decision he made to withdraw both Sinisterra and Joe Gelhardt midway through the second half after Toney had just completed his hat-trick, although it doesn’t excuse it.

The referee was poor, and the video assistant not much better, in what seems to be a growing issue in the Premier League.

But the Leeds United defence was also bad, if not worse, and the manager made some weird choices to compound the issue.

Of most concern was the fact that the attacking players were generally pretty good, with Gelhardt in particular looking dangerous, Sinisterra scoring a great solo goal, and Patrick Bamford threatening despite a glaring miss just before Marc Roca scored, but the defence put in the kind of performance that become customary last year.

A complete inability to keep it tight at the back undercut any attacking work, and five goals conceded, including immediately after Roca pulled one back, and an awful self-destruction late for the fifth, represented the kind of collapse that threatened the club’s top flight status in the previous campaign.

The season has started so well, but after a debacle on transfer deadline day this was the last performance the fans wanted to see to restore some faith.

In other Leeds United news, the player ratings from the match tell a story of defensive mayhem and managerial misjudgments.