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“Poor Decision” Costs QPR A Point Against High Flying Leeds

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Queens Park Rangers manager Steve McClaren has blasted a mistake by the officials in our tie against Leeds United at the weekend.

Heading to Elland Road for the latest Championship encounter, QPR fell to a 2-1 defeat despite taking the lead halfway through the first half as Nahki Wells found the back of the net.

Leeds’ striker Kemar Roofe had them back on level terms in first-half stoppage time, but the controversial moment came within ten minutes of the second half restart as the referee decided that centre-half Toni Leistner had handballed within the penalty box, and they took full advantage of that decision to secure all three points.

Speaking to the BBC as he met with the media following the fulltime whistle for his post-game press conference, an irate McClaren said.

“It was a poor decision for the penalty, a very, very poor decision. It’s cost us a result. Toni was adamant it didn’t touch his hand and the referee’s position – wow. He’s got fantastic eyes. He can see through people I think to see a handball. I think they won ugly today and that’s what you need to do when you’re going for promotion.”

Fair’s fair though, they had the better of the game in terms of possession and chances overall and the best our efforts could’ve hoped for was a draw. I more than understand McClaren’s frustration though as short of the penalty decision we looked to be on for a draw given our defensive efforts on the day as we didn’t crumble and as I type this, I haven’t seen replays well enough to know if the decision was bad – but it’s rare for a gaffer to be that adamant with the advantage of replays of the referee hasn’t made a major cock up.

With Video Assistant Referee technology in the news the last month, I guess this is another nail for its introduction.

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