'Looking for a way out' - Graham Smyth shares Leeds United theory after Aston Villa flashpoint

A red card for Leeds United winger Luis Sinisterra last weekend means the Colombian international will sit out this Sunday’s fixture away to Crystal Palace.

Leeds have been on the receiving end of some contentious officiating decisions this season, including the incident which saw Crysencio Summerville felled inside the Brentford penalty area last month, and Jesse Marsch subsequently sent off for his protestations.

In their most recent fixture at Elland Road, the decision to reduce Leeds to ten men was likely the correct one, but the inconsistency with which referee Stuart Attwell officiated the game, in particular failing to clamp down on Aston Villa’s time-wasting, left a sour taste in the mouth of Leeds supporters.

Speaking on the Inside Elland Road podcast from the Yorkshire Evening Post, chief football writer Graham Smyth shared his thoughts on last Sunday’s game-defining moment: “Now, Sinisterra's red card, it's really silly from Sinisterra. You know, when he's on a yellow putting his foot up to waist height to block a free kick is just dumb. It's a dumb move.

"And Jesse Marsch said as much when he said 'it's not an intelligent play'. What transpired in the seconds after the red card came or after the yellow card came out, said to me that [Stuart] Attwell had lost the run of himself a little bit, because he had to be reminded that it was Sinisterra's second yellow.

"That makes me think, would he have given a yellow for that had he remembered or would he have just given him a severe talking to? And what he did then after he showed the red, go and speak to the fourth official for some unknown reason, speaking into his earpiece, he looked like a referee looking for a way out of the decision he had just made.

"You know, 'give me a reason not to send him off'. And can you imagine Villa's response had they found, had there been some miracle that the ball was moving when Villa took it, or they took it from the wrong place or Sinisterra was roughly 10 yards back? They would have been apoplectic.

"Stevie G would have been volleying water bottles with the same kind of venom that he struck that goal in the FA Cup Final. He would have been beyond himself. And you would have understood that.

"It just wasn't a good look for the Premier League and for Stuart Attwell. And then the game just kind of settled into a pattern that was always going to happen.”

Jesse Marsch refused to comment on the performance of the officials last weekend, after serving a one-match touchline ban following his red card at Brentford on September 4.

Attwell will not officiate a Premier League fixture this weekend, instead taking on VAR responsibilities at Stockley Park for Brighton and Hove Albion’s match against Tottenham Hotspur.

Listen to the latest from Graham Smyth and Leeds United journalist Joe Donnohue on the Inside Elland Road podcast here.