Leeds United were held to a 0-0 draw by Brentford at Elland Road, picking up a point in their fight to stay in the Premier League.
It wasn’t the home win they were hoping for, and it stretches their winless run in the league to six games. Still, they avoided defeat and added to their tally.
West Ham’s loss to Aston Villa means Leeds remain four points clear of the relegation zone with seven matches to play. Even so, they’ll be desperate to get a win soon to relieve some of the pressure.
The game itself was labelled “hard to watch” by several pundits, and journalist Henry Winter was also critical of some of Brentford’s tactics on the day.
Brentford manager Keith Andrews now owes an apology to former Whites boss Marcelo Bielsa for some of the antics Brentford adopted during the game against Leeds.
Keith Andrews was sitting on his high horse while criticising Marcelo Bielsa
Leeds fans have no love lost for Keith Andres and clearly remember what he said about the club and Bielsa a few years ago.
Then, a Sky Sports pundit, the current Brentford boss, called out Bielsa for sending a spy to watch Derby County’s training session ahead of a big game in 2019.
He said, “It’s quite disgusting really, it is not the way things are done over here.
“It’s not illegal, it’s immoral, it is not really in the spirit of the game, the way it is played over here.”
He was too concerned about morals and the spirit of the game. However, his goalkeeper went down to allow his players to get fresh instructions from Andrews.
Caoimhin Kelleher continued for the rest of the game with no signs of discomfort, which exposed that the injury break was to disrupt Leeds and waste time.
The Brentford boss has no issues with morals and the spirit of the game when he used a loophole to get his point across.
To quote Andrews, ‘It’s not illegal, it’s immoral’.
How long can Leeds suffer refereeing incompetence?
Farke’s side have every reason to feel hard done by, with several questionable refereeing decisions going against them in recent games.
Leeds will believe that with better officiating, they might have avoided home defeats to Manchester City and Sunderland earlier this month.
Gudmundsson’s red card against Crystal Palace only made things more difficult, leaving them with an uphill task after the break, and in the end, they were relieved to come away with a point.
With the relegation battle intensifying, Farke will be hoping the balance finally starts to tip in Leeds’ favour during the run-in.
The fight for survival is getting tighter by the week, and Leeds simply can’t afford to keep losing points due to contentious decisions at this stage of the season.
