Leeds United fans have a strange belief that the world is against them. For the most part, it’s not, but they love to think it. As they prepare for Saturday’s playoff semi-final first-leg against Derby, the news has come in that Tom Lawrence will not be retrospectively banned after having a challenge on him reviewed for diving, and the Whites, for once, agree with the outcome.
Tom Lawrence will face no action from the Football Association over an alleged dive against West Brom. He's available for the play-off semi-final between Leeds United and Derby County. #lufc
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) May 7, 2019
Usually, when this sort of incident happens there are Leeds fans going mad that the EFL and the FA are against them, and there are plenty of fans who do hold that view. However, in this case, the Leeds fans who have got some sense about them have been quick to point out that they believe the right decision has been reached, as Kyle Bartley definitely made contact with Tom Lawrence as he won a penalty.
Even if the penalty hadn’t been given the Rams would have gone on to win 2-1 and qualified for the playoffs anyway, so the penalty made no difference to the outcome. Then there’s the fact that had Bartley not brought down Lawrence he would have had a good chance of finding the net himself anyway, so the Derby man was unlikely to throw himself to the ground with no contact.
You can read the Whites’ thoughts on the Lawrence ruling here:
It's a penalty at the end of the day. No complaints
— Sam Wilson (@swils92) May 7, 2019
Let’s not play the victim card here – there was contact, running at speed, penalty given. If Tom Lawrence is the difference of Derby beating us or not then we don’t deserve to go up.
— James Edward Posnett (@James__Posnett) May 7, 2019
I'm sure there will be a lot of anger, but there was contact in the challenge – if a Leeds player was banned for going down under contact, we'd be incensed
— We Are Leeds (@WeAreLeeds1919) May 7, 2019
I’m being honest here, it did look like there could have been (very) minimal contact. It’s nothing like the Bamford incident where there was nothing in it. If it was the other way around we’d be saying that there was contact and it was a Pen. Simple.
— Smarty (@GOGSGOYS) May 7, 2019
Why would he face action when there was contact? Our fan base have crumbled as badly as the players (in the most loving way) come on boys we can beat these I’ve two legs Tom twatting Lawrence it not.
— Leo (@DirtyLeedsLeo) 7 May 2019
To be fair if we’re looking at things rationally, there was contact even if very minimal. They’d be setting an extreme precedence if they did ban him just based on the fact there was slight contact; no denial he went down on his own but that’s irrespective.
— Jay Smith (@vodkainmyeyes) May 7, 2019
https://twitter.com/ramswriter/status/1125753080862203904
The Whites have no issues with Lawrence getting off without a charge, and they’d have been fuming had one of their own been charged for the same incident.
