Dermot Gallagher shares verdict on Patrick Bamford incident from Leeds United win v Southampton
Former FIFA referee Dermot Gallagher has shared his verdict on Patrick Bamford’s penalty claim from the Leeds win over Southampton this weekend (25 February).
The Whites claimed their first win since October thanks to a late Junior Firpo winner, but striker Bamford felt he should have had a penalty.
However when reviewing the incident for Sky Sports’ Ref watch segment (27 February), Gallagher admitted that he would have been very surprised to see a penalty given.
“I think this isn’t a foul,” he said.
“There’s physical contact but who contacts who? I’d have been very surprised if the referee had pointed to the spot for this.”
Soft
There’s no doubt that it would have been a soft penalty decision, but when was the last time we got a soft penalty in our favour?
It feels like an eternity since we got a penalty that was even a little bit contentious, but the important thing in this instance is that we’re winning again.
The win in the game was far more important than getting the penalty, but with the battle against relegation so tight at the bottom of the table these decisions could prove costly down the line.
Getting into the position to win penalties is part of the way to get successful again though, and with tricky players like Wilfried Gnonto, Crysencio Summerville and Brenden Aaronson available to play in attack we should start seeing more.
We’ll let this one slide because we won the game, but the players need to start making referees aware of when they’re caught in the box as it could prove crucial.
In other Leeds news, Harry Redknapp has named one star in his Premier League team of the week.
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