McLeish blasts 'ludicrous' penalty

02 March 2009 07:19
Lancashire official Lee Mason pointed to the penalty spot nine minutes from time after on-loan Blades striker Craig Beattie went down under an innocuous-looking challenge from Stephen Carr and Radhi Jaidi, and the spot-kick was coolly dispatched by David Cotterill to give the hosts all three points.[LNB]Blues, who would have gone level on points with leaders Wolves with a victory, have now won only two of their last 10 games but looked to be on course for a valuable point when Chris Morgan scored an own goal 17 minutes from time.[LNB]Danny Webber had put United in front just before half-time, firing home from close range after Darius Henderson headed the ball into his path.[LNB]Webber's strike was also controversial, with Henderson appearing to be offside when the ball was crossed from the left.[LNB]"The officials have had a bad day, there has got to be better quality than that from officials, just the same as you ask for better quality from some of the players," said McLeish.[LNB]"I haven't seen the offside decision, but there is nobody that I've spoken to that said it wasn't, so I have to take their word for that.[LNB]"But I saw the penalty decision, which was absolutely ludicrous, if that's a penalty then the referee has got to give 20 penalties in a game.[LNB]"I've not been to see him (Mason), but one of my coaches has. I thought I'd better stay away from him in case I said anything I regretted.[LNB]"At this level, in front of the Sky cameras, there is no hiding place for me and for the officials and they didn't do their job correctly today.[LNB]"I think it was Craig Beattie who made a tumbling gesture that maybe attracted the referee, so fair play to Craig, it was Carr I think the award was given against but it's such a big decision to give in a game of this magnitude, we feel hard done by, we've had one penalty this season and some teams have had 15 or 16. It's unbelievable."[LNB]Blades boss Kevin Blackwell thought his side were worthy winners and challenged his players to mount a push for automatic promotion.[LNB]The South Yorkshire club are now up to fifth, six points behind Birmingham with a game in hand.[LNB]He said: "I thought we deserved to win as we were the better side.[LNB]"I've got to pay tribute to the players, they were superb from start to finish, although I thought we showed them too much respect in the first 10 minutes."[LNB]He added: "I don't think anybody in the top eight believes they haven't got a chance for automatic (promotion).[LNB]"I think it's about belief, you've got to believe are you good enough to want to play here, to win things and to try and get promotion and I thought they showed they have the ambition and belief to play here and the belief and ambition to win and now they have to have the belief and ambition to go and get promotion, it's there for them if they want it."[LNB][LNB]

Source: Team_Talk