We caused a bit of a fractious atmosphere at Burnley by daring to say what we thought about Chris Wood and Charlie Taylor. Sean Dyche has taken exception, the Police thought it might lead to bother during the penalties, and Ladbrookes were drawn into posting a rather unwise tweet after the game.
There was plenty of abuse dished out to Taylor and Wood from the Leeds end throughout the game, but in my view it was no worse than could have been expected after the manner of their departure, with both players refusing to play for the club in the last game when they were still on our books. It has been known for football fans to dish out a bit of stick to unpopular former players.
But it all came as a surprise to Sean Dyche, who told the Express "It's a strange business, football, twenty-odd million they've made for a club and they get slaughtered. I don't know any more how fans react to players, ex-players, all that stuff, but that's football now. Those two have been fantastic servants to Leeds, if I'm honest. But Woody has done fantastically, walking on to our pitch and scoring, and again in the shootout."
And Dyche also made himself look silly when he said that we shouldn’t have been given a penalty for a shirt pull on Roofe, because the ball was well over his head and he couldn’t have got to it. It sounds like he’s got confused between the professional foul guidelines and the rules governing penalties, as a foul in the box is always a penalty regardless of whether the offended party is in a position to score a goal.
The Burnley supremo thought they should have won the tie in 90 minutes, and perhaps they would have done if he’d selected a stronger team to start with. They’re not going to achieve anything in the Premier League beyond mere survival, so why not go for a cup competition as a chance to win a trophy? Why risk defeat by fielding a weakened side?
It’s been confirmed that once the tie had gone to penalties the police ‘advised’ the referee that the shootout should take place in front of the home end, rather than allowing the issue to be decided by a toss of a coin. It seems that the banter between the two sets of fans had been enough to make the police a bit nervous, even though no actual trouble had taken place.
And a spokesman for Lancashire Police added "There were a variety of testing moments including incidents along the segregation line between rival supporters and as a result, when the match proceeded to a penalty shootout, police offered advice to the match referee on which end the penalty shootout should be held.
"This advice was based on the safety of all of those attending the match but the decision was ultimately one taken by the match referee." An EFL spokesman said: "As a result of police advice, in conjunction with the Club’s safety officer, it was agreed at the conclusion of extra time that the penalty kicks would be taken at the home end of the stadium due to general safety concerns.”
Thomas Christiansen was not impressed with this decision, and had a long discussion with the match officials before the shootout began. Holding the shootout in front of the home fans could have given Burnley a bit of an advantage, but thankfully it didn’t matter in the end.
Finally, Ladbrokes have apologised to Burnley for a message posted on twitter involving a one-fingered gesture aimed at Wood and Taylor and the caption "Yours sincerely, Leeds fans #LUFC.” But the bookmakers have since backtracked and issued an official statement.
"They were very poorly conceived tweets which we have since deleted. "It was only intended to be a bit of fun but failed completely in that regard, and we have apologised to Burnley FC and would like to sincerely apologise to any fans of the club that took offence.” Perhaps they should have used the Dele Alli excuse and claimed that the finger was aimed at one of their mates.
Who are we going to upset in the last 16?