Leeds United youngsters secure rise with double attacker impact but decision is slammed

United’s under-21s took on hosts Newcastle United’s under-21s at Whitley Park on Friday evening in Premier League Two, bidding to record a second win in five days following Monday’s 3-0 triumph at home to Derby County’s youngsters.

Monday’s victory against the Rams took Scott Gardner’s Whites off the foot of the division with games in hand and Leeds secured a further rise up the table with a 2-0 win against the Magpies.

Nineteen-year-old attacker Luca Thomas made a double impact for Leeds, netting both goals for the young Whites after the break. But Newcastle boss Ben Dawson was left fuming with referee James Oldham’s decision that led to the Leeds opener from the penalty spot.

A long free-kick floated into the Newcastle box sailed behind for what looked like being a goal kick or corner but Leeds were then awarded a penalty for handball and Thomas duly smashed home his spot kick into the bottom corner with 67 minutes on the clock.

Newcastle tried to respond but Thomas doubled his and United’s tally 13 minutes later, finishing off a fine team move after being played in by Sam Chambers. The victory took Leeds up another three places in the Premier League Two table, above Newcastle, West Brom and Everton into 22nd place in the 26-team division. Magpies boss Dawson, though, was not impressed.

"We’re still trying to understand,” he told the Shields Gazette. “The referee has given a corner, they’ve actually looked at each other first, then both have signalled, one gave a corner and one gave a goal kick. There’s then quite a few seconds where they’ve walked away and are happy with the decision and then all of a sudden the referee has decided ‘I’m not happy with this’. As far as I’m concerned I don’t think they have a clue whose arm it has hit, if it has hit somebody’s arm and they’ve somehow come to the conclusion that it is a penalty.

“The decision that is made has changed the game. It’s really poor. The lads deserve better. It was a good game of football, it was a competitive game. But that one decision has ruined it for our lads and it changes the flow of the game.”

Whites boss Scott Gardner told LUTV: "I thought it was a really well managed, controlled game from our perspective. I saw different elements of the game that we have been working on. I need to see the group progressing and the connection between the players and the things that we are asking to do just becoming tighter and tighter which we knew it would given us a little bit of time. It's a young group but they are really progressing well.

"Everything that they (Newcastle) did, I thought we had an answer for and equally I thought we were a real threat when we found those pockets of space with Sam and Luca in particular."