The Leeds United Brentford penalty row has been settled by one of the country’s most-quoted refereeing voices, with former Premier League official Dermot Gallagher backing Tony Harrington’s decision to wave away the Bees’ second-half appeal at Elland Road on Sunday.
Brentford felt they should have had the chance to double their lead from 12 yards shortly after the interval in a game that finished 1-1. Kevin Schade had put the visitors in front before Dominic Calvert-Lewin levelled, and the Whites left the pitch with a point that, on the balance of the second half, they thoroughly deserved.
The Leeds United Brentford penalty incident, replayed
The incident arrived early in the second half. Schade, already on the scoresheet, collected a pass just inside the Leeds area, cut back inside onto his stronger side and went to ground under pressure from Jayden Bogle. Brentford’s players appealed immediately. Harrington waved play on.
Replays did show some foot-to-foot contact between Bogle and the German forward, which is what turned a routine shout into a talking point. VAR checked it and opted against recommending an on-field review, leaving the referee’s original call to stand.
It was the sort of contact that, depending on which camera you watch, either looks like a clear foul or like almost nothing at all — and that ambiguity is precisely why the decision has stuck around for 48 hours.
Dermot Gallagher’s verdict on Ref Watch
Gallagher, speaking on Sky Sports‘ Ref Watch, was clear that the system had worked as intended even if the outcome will not please everyone in west London.
“I think this is another example of the referee giving the decision and VAR not being able to overturn it,” he said. “If you look, one angle it looks like he made good contact and the other angle, it looks so minimal. But the referee is so close and says no, he will relay that to the VAR, who stick with the referee.”
Pressed on his own reading of the challenge, Gallagher pointed to Bogle’s body position rather than the contact itself. “I think it’s one of them, if you see where the referee is and he’s described what he’s seen. It’s very difficult,” he added. “I think he’s got his foot planted and he goes over it, that’s the angle where I thought it wasn’t a penalty… I think his foot is planted and he doesn’t do anything.”
That is the crux of it. A defender who plants a foot and stops moving is not making an active challenge, and referees are increasingly reluctant to punish contact that a forward runs into rather than one that is put in front of him. Bogle, to his credit, did not lunge.
Not everyone agreed
The panel was not unanimous. As the Yorkshire Evening Post reported, former Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood took a different view of the same footage, and Brentford themselves were audibly aggrieved at the time.
Leeds supporters will not lose much sleep over that. Harrington had already been a subject of pre-match discussion — our look at the referee’s record before the Brentford fixture flagged a whistle that tends to let games run — and on this occasion the Whites came out on the right side of a marginal call.
The bigger picture at Elland Road
Context matters here. Had the penalty been given and converted, Brentford would have gone two goals up against a Leeds side that had been comfortably second best for 45 minutes. Instead Daniel Farke’s half-time reshuffle took hold, substitutes Lukas Nmecha and Daniel James changed the shape of the contest, and Calvert-Lewin nodded the Whites level.
Dan James later credited the improvement to shape and appetite rather than luck, as we covered in our piece on what changed after the break. But it is fair to say Leeds needed the decision to go their way to have anything left to salvage.
Four points from the opening two Premier League fixtures, an unbeaten start, and a refereeing verdict that has gone in their favour. There are worse ways to begin a season.
