Liverpool 3 Leeds 1

By Andy Baggott
October 27 2003

Not for the first time this season, Leeds were undone by a referee’s decision. This time, our old ‘favourite’ Jeff Winter decided that he should determine the result of the game, and not the players on the pitch.

Both sides probed early on, and Owen finished well to give the home side the lead. Leeds pressed forward, and Pennant took the ball round Riise and squared for Smith to bang home his first goal in 13 games. The interval came and all was square. Liverpool started to push forward more, but didn’t really create many chances, and it was Viduka who had the best opportunity to score, but shot straight at Dudek when clean through. Then came the turning point. Murphy swung in a free kick, and the Leeds backline pushed out, leaving three attackers offside. Robinson made a mess of the cross, and it went in the net. The linesman had his flag up, and there seemed no problem. Winter went over, and decided to over rule, and explained later it was because the offside players weren’t interfering. My argument to that is this. The offside was a rehearsed trap by Leeds where they all stepped out, leaving players in. IF they weren’t interfering, Leeds needn’t have stepped out, and could have had men say on the post, or on the edge of the six yard area. These defenders would have cleared the ball before it reached Robbo, or could have helped clear it after he spilled it. By pushing out, they weren’t able to be in those positions. As against Birmingham earlier this year, Leeds were the victims of a terrible decision, and Houllier at least had the good grace to say he would have been very unhappy if it had have gone against his side. Pongolle’s fine finish late on in the game sealed the win, at boss Reid must be hoping for a little bit of luck, as Leeds are plunged into the bottom three…