Leeds United went back to the top of the Championship table in dramatic fashion on Monday night when they beat Sunderland 2-1 through a late goal from Pascal Struijk. There were delirious scenes at Elland Road at the end of the game and the Whites appear to be gathering real momentum towards the business end of the season. However, referee Stuart Atwell’s decision to brandish a yellow card against Daniel Farke at the end of the game for some weird reason. The German was celebrating the winning goal with his players on the pitch, which attracted the match officials’ ire. It was Farke’s third yellow card of the season, which means he will have to serve a touchline ban when Leeds take on Sheffield United at Bramall Lane next Monday.
Two late goals from Struijk led to fantastic scenes at Elland Road as Leeds United came back from behind to beat Sunderland 2-1 to score three crucial points in the race for promotion this season.
Leeds reestablished their two-point lead at the top of the Championship standings and now have a seven-point lead over Burnley who are sitting just outside the automatic promotion spots.
Amidst the brilliant scenes at Elland Road at the end of the game, there was one sour note when Farke was shown a yellow card by referee Atwell, which means he won’t be on the touchline at Bramall Lane next Monday night.
The Leeds boss was celebrating with his players and was in the playing area when the second Leeds goal went in in injury time and the match officials were not impressed by it.
However, former Leeds boss Neil Warnock slammed the referee for not understanding the emotions of the game when he showed the yellow card to Farke.
“What harm is Daniel Farke doing there?” – Former Leeds United boss
Farke has been the driving force behind Leeds’ race for promotion this season and the team will miss his presence at Sheffield United next week.
It was the third yellow card the German received this season and Warnock insisted that it was a completely unnecessary one given the situation of the game.
The former Leeds boss stressed that Farke was just celebrating with his players and believes the fourth official was overzealous in reporting the manager to Atwell.
Warnock also feels the EFL should have given the game to a younger referee over Atwell as he or could have done with the experience of refereeing a big game such as this.
“What I don’t miss in football – when you look at the referee at the end of the game. Daniel Farke runs on the pitch at the end to celebrate with his team, what harm is he doing there?”, Warnock said on Sky Sports.
“Surely they can just bypass that? It will be a busy fourth official who has called referee Stuart Atwell over and told him to get Farke booked and they (the officials) absolutely love it.
“What is Stuart Atwell doing refereeing the game anyway? Why don’t they get a Championship referee and give him the experience of a top game like this?
“I think to book Farke there is a disgrace. Did anyone book David Moyes in the Everton game the other night? I didn’t see anyone booking him?”
The referee showed a lack of common sense
When the second goal from Struijk went in at Elland Road on Monday night there was complete delirium inside the stadium given the importance of the game.
The three points took Leeds one step closer to the promised land of the Premier League and more or less ended Sunderland’s hopes of automatic promotion.
The emotions on the Leeds bench at the end were natural and Farke mistakenly stepping onto the pitch while celebrating with his players could have been excused easily given the context.
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Does anyone remember Bryan Kidd and Sir Alex Ferguson celebrating Steve Bruce scoring the winner against Sheffield Wednesday at Old Trafford more than three decades back? Or Jose Mourinho running down the touchline on the same pitch as Porto boss or David Moyes wildly celebrating Everton’s late equaliser against Liverpool last week?
Football is a game of emotions and you can’t expect players and managers to remember the white line while celebrating a late goal of epic proportions.
Had Atwell applied a little bit of common sense, he would have asked the fourth referee to ignore the Farke celebrations but common sense has long escaped modern referees.
Absolutely disgusting and the card should / must be rescinded by the EFL, but it won’t be, they don’t have that much decency. The performance of Referee Attwell was disappointing throughout the game. He issued a total of 8 YCs before showing Daniel Farke his, 6 to Sunderland, and 3 to Leeds … the card he issued to Ao Tanaka was not a foul, and the video shows, quite clearly, that there was no contact, whilst he failed to take the appropriate action against Trai Hume for his reckless tackle on Manor Solomon. As for the card shown to Farke … here, there is little to no consistency between referees … the likes of Mikel Arteta, Jurgen Klopp, and many others constantly coach their teams from the touchline, rather than within the confines of their technical areas, all of this under the watchful eye of the 4th Official who is… Read more »