Jermaine Beckford did not hold back in his criticism of the decision to disallow a Leeds United goal during their FA Cup tie with Fulham on Tuesday, telling BBC One (broadcast on 28/2; 20:36) that the call was ridiculous.
Leeds initially thought that they had broken the deadlock at Craven Cottage. Georginio Rutter had the ball in the back of the net after Marek Rodak had parried Weston McKennie’s header.
It was not immediately clear what Chris Kavanagh had given the decision for. But replays showed that Harry Wilson had thrown himself to the ground after an arm in the back from McKennie.
Beckford furious about disallowed Leeds goal
There was definitely contact between the two players. However, there was surely nothing like the amount of contact to force Wilson to go to ground as if he was trying to clear a school high jump bar.
The VAR did not see enough to overturn the decision. And that proved costly as Fulham took the lead with an absolutely stunning goal from Joao Palhinha.
Certainly, most Leeds fans could not understand how there was enough from McKennie for the incident to be a foul. And it seems that Beckford was just as annoyed as he assessed our first-half display.
“There’s been a couple of half chances, couple of really good opportunities. The disallowed goal was ridiculous, if I’m being honest, in my opinion,” he told BBC One.
The frustration is that we know that decision could have easily gone another way on another day. In fact, you would not be surprised if Chelsea ended up scoring a goal in similar circumstances this weekend. That appears to just be Leeds’ luck right now.
Just this week, some fans were posting clips of one Tottenham goal earlier this season in which Illan Meslier was almost being thrown into the net. That came after Arsenal saw a goal ruled out at Leicester this past weekend for a very soft foul from Ben White.
There is no consistency. And when wins are few and far between, it is much easier to notice just how many crucial decisions go against you.
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