Leeds United opponents in a league of their own as boss issues 'any help' expectation

The Whites' next opponents sit 17th in the Championship table. Five wins in the first half of the season led to the appointment of Gary Rowett, who has masterminded eight more including three in their last five outings. The victories over Watford and both Sheffield clubs have helped put an eight-point safety net between the U's and the drop zone. They host a league-leading Leeds side who head into their Good Friday outing talking about all the right things with football and the promotion race taking over from last week's discussion over officiating.

Leeds officiating fury

Farke spoke out after assistant referee Darren Williams wrongly disallowed three perfectly good Leeds goals in the space of eight weeks. The Whites boss was flabbergasted at the decision to continue appointing Williams to Leeds games and called on the game's authorities to protect the linesman from the potential for further controversy. Ultimately Leeds won all three of the games in which Williams incorrectly raised his offside flag but it was not enough to placate Farke.

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Farke said: "I'm really struggling to find proper words for having the same assistant ruling out three good goals in eight weeks for offside. If they were difficult to see I could live with this. Why do we keep sending this assistant to games for Leeds United? If he is there out of coincidence with mistakes against us, at some point you should protect him. I'm not sure why he's always the assistant for us and rules out goals that should stand. We're playing for such a big reward, going up to the Premier League, millions of pounds.

"This level of assistant performances, I'm struggling with this to be honest. I want to be understanding. I could make my life easier and say we've won the game, everything is fine. If you always have to fight against this adversity it's difficult. It's hard to accept."

Oxford United unique issue

But where Leeds have been aggrieved at not getting the rub of the green when it comes to officials and their interpretation of offside situations, Rowett appears to have given up on getting any justice when the ball is in the opposition box.

As for Oxford and Rowett, their complaint is a more longstanding one because they're the only side in the entire division who have not been awarded a single penalty kick this season. Watford lead the Championship with seven awarded, while Leeds have won four and converted three of those. Only two teams in the entire Football League have gone this far into the 2024/25 campaign without a referee pointing to the spot in their favour and Rowett has given up hope of seeing it.

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Speaking on Saturday after referee Andy Davies decided that there was no handball offence committed when a shot appeared to hit Akin Famewo on the arm inside the area, Rowett said: “We didn’t get another penalty. It was a blatant penalty, but again, I don’t expect us to get one this season. It’s a long old season, and we’re not going to get any help, are we?”