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Ex-Premier League referee instantly reacts to red card incident in Leeds United v Aston Villa
Jarred Gillett had no option but to send Aston Villa defender Ezri Konsa off in the 3-3 draw with Leeds United at Villa Park on Wednesday night, according to ex-referee Peter Walton.
Konsa was shown his second yellow card in the 87th minute after his elbow caught Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier.
It kicked off a scrappy end to the game that saw some handbags between Raphinha and Ashley Young.
Walton feels Gillett was correct to show Konsa the red card.
“[Gillett had] no alternative at all,” said Walton on BT Sport 1 on Wednesday night [9 February, 09:47pm].
“As you remember, his first yellow card was for a foul on James and the second there was just frustration.
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“His elbow was raised too high and gave Jarred there the opportunity to issue a second yellow card. Unfortunately, they’re going down to 10.”
Easy decision
Konsa was lucky he was not shown a straight red card for what looked like a deliberate elbow on Meslier.
We saw in the second half how tempers started to become frayed among both sets of players.
Frustrating grew and Konsa’s grew to the point where he could have seriously injured the Leeds United goalkeeper on purpose.
He didn’t need to raise his arm and his elbow was pointed towards Meslier as the Frenchman was about the throw the ball out.
Gillett should’ve shown an instant red but instead bottled it and went for a second yellow card.
Either way, it didn’t affect Leeds – it just means that Konsa should be facing a three-match ban now for violent conduct.
Leeds did well to get a point out of that, in all honesty.
Villa’s attackers were all over us in the first half but after half-time, it felt as though we wrestled control back and grabbed a deserved equaliser.
Dan James was electric, Rodrigo was improved and Mateusz Klich and Robin Koch did a decent job in the middle.
In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay is baffled by this back-to-front Leeds transfer stance.