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Evans says referee should be relegated to the Under-9s
Sunday, 17th Jan 2016 11:56 by Tim Whelan

After the fiasco of our disallowed goal against Sheffield Wednesday, it’s no surprise that Steve Evans hasn’t exactly been complementary about the performance of Anthony Taylor.

We thought that Leeds had got back into the game in the 78th. as Liam Cooper bundled a free kick into the net, only for the referee to disallow the goal after consulting the fourth official, because Forestieri hadn’t yet left the field after being substituted.

Everyone waited for the inevitable explosion from Steve Evans on the touchline, only to find that Evans had actually missed this incident, having nipped down the tunnel for a toilet break as soon as the ball hit the back of the net! But it was all explained to him in due course, and it’s no surprise that he took the opportunity to rip in the officials once he was asked for a post-match interview.

“He says in law he’s got it right because it should be disallowed. I’ve never seen that ever. He’s a Premier League referee who’s stepped down to take charge of a big derby. He should be with the Under-9s on a park pitch in his next game because you cannot make a mistake of that magnitude in a game which means so much.”

“The free-kick is given, the referee signals that he’s going to allow a substitution. Forestieri got his deckchair out and took four days to come off. The referee in my opinion overruled that and said we’ll restart play. He clearly whistled to restart play. I’ve been to see him and he accepts that. He shouts to my players ‘play’. We score, he gives the goal.”

Was it correct in law to disallow the goal? The substitution is supposed to be completed when the incoming player enters the field, which he had. Forestieri wasn’t interfering with play as he went off, and none of the Wednesday players seemed to be distracted by the fact he was still on the pitch. If anything, the Owls had the advantage by having an extra man on the field.

Certainly Forestieri created the problem in the place by taking so long to leave the field, blatantly time-wasting by stopping to wave to the crowd instead of getting straight off. Instead of waiting, the officials should have asked him to get a move on.

When the free kick was retaken it was cleared off the line, by a player that some Leeds fans thought shouldn’t have been of the field, as he could have picked up a second yellow for the foul that led to the free kick in the first place. But to be honest, I thought it would been a bit of a soft dismissal if he had gone, as it wasn’t that bad a foul. Then again, I grew up watching football in the 1970s, when to get booked you more or less had to take a machete to someone’s legs.

And I have also had a Wednesday fan pointing out to me on Facebook that they could have had a penalty in the first half when Belucci wrestled Forestieri to the floor, which may be fair comment. That’ll teach me to moan about referees on social media.

We will now wait to see if the FA punish Evans for his comments about Taylor. It has been known for them to charge a manger for ‘bringing the game into disrepute’, even when they tacitly acknowledge his criticism was justified by suspending the incompetent official concerned.

One thing we do know is that yesterday’s result has left Leeds 13 points short of the play-offs, which is surely too much to make up in the remaining games. We’ll never know if we would have come back to take a valuable in point if that goal had been allowed to stand. At least we’re now free to concentrate on the FA Cup.


Photo: Action Images



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