Patrick Bamford shares what officials told him in tunnel after Leeds incident v Villa
Leeds United forward Patrick Bamford has revealed what Peter Bankes told him after waving away a penalty decision in the 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa.
The Whites striker went down under pressure from Tyrone Mings towards the end of the game, but the incident went unpunished at Elland Road.
Bamford admitted that he didn’t believe it was a penalty, but that Bankes previously claimed he would penalise Mings if he did the same thing again.
Speaking on the official Leeds United Podcast on Thursday, Bamford admitted that he got an honest verdict from the officials after the game.
“With the penalty at the end, I don’t think it was a penalty personally,” he said.
“Before when the ref brought us together, he said to them ‘stop, if you keep doing that, it’s going to be a penalty’ so all I did was make sure the way I moved, he had to grab me again and basically nudge me down.
“He didn’t give it. After the game, I wanted to speak to him, and he was actually honest and fair enough he spoke to me in the tunnel and was honest about his views on it.”
How does any of this make sense?
Bankes claimed that he would give a penalty should the same thing happen again, which it did, and then didn’t give the decision.
Bamford admitted he didn’t think it was a penalty and may have been soft, but the facts are that Mings made contact and didn’t win the ball, so where do we draw the line?
It brings back the argument that players should throw themselves to the floor more dramatically, just as Ian Poveda was told he should have done against Chelsea.
We can’t win; either go down dramatically and get accused of diving or don’t go down and you are too honest, there must be a middle ground.
In other Leeds United news, Mateusz Klich must use big break to recover before West Ham