'Rules' - Solly March dismay at Leeds United decision and Brighton frustration after 'dominance'

Highflying Brighton led twice in Saturday’s Premier League clash in West Yorkshire but were twice pegged back by Whites equalisers from Patrick Bamford and Jack Harrison. After Alexis Mac Allister had headed the Seagulls in front, Patrick Bamford rifled home a deflected equaliser five minutes before the interval for what March described as a “killer” blow following further chances for the visitors.

Brighton went back ahead as March forced a Harrison own goal one minute after the hour mark but a Harrison rocket drew Leeds level again with 12 minutes left though not without Seagulls dismay at a lack of intervention from referee Paul Tierney.

Harrison arrowed a fine strike into the top-right of the net after Willy Gnonto had fed him the ball from a short corner but there were momentarily two balls on the pitch very quickly after Gnonto had taken then short corner. A second ball reached Gnonto just after he had passed to Harrison but the Italian quickly removed the ball from play as Harrison received his delivery before turning inside and unleashing his strike into the top right corner. Several of Brighton’s players then remonstrated with referee Tierney and March said the decision to allow play to continue left him perplexed.

Asked post-match for his view on Harrison’s equaliser with two balls on the pitch, March said: "I saw something, I thought maybe the ref will blow but we came out and to be honest I haven't spoken to the other lads whether it affects them or not so we'll have to see. But there's two balls on the pitch and with the corner taker touching the ball with his hand it's frustrating not to stop the game and blow up really."

Fourth official Anthony Taylor reportedly explained afterwards that play is only stopped if the second ball on the pitch is interfering with play. Pressed on whether that affected his view on the matter, March admitted: “I didn't know the rules to be honest. If the guy has handled one of the balls and flicked it off then surely that's interfering but I don't know. We have to look at it and see what happens."

Reflecting on the feeling of Brighton leaving with a point and not three, March declared: "Definitely frustration. It's one of those games again, I think we did enough to win the game and maybe had the chances as well to put the game to bed.

"It's a tough place to go when the atmosphere gets going and at 2-1 we would have liked to have seen the game out and get all three points so it's frustrating. I think we were better in the first half than the second half.

"We really dominated the game and they didn't know what to do really and to go in at half-time was a bit of a killer really out of nothing so that was frustrating but to not even come away with three with three points is probably more frustrating overall.

"There's a lot of positives but it's just frustration not to be killing games off like that when we're on top, especially the first half when we are completely dominating the game. The second half was a bit different but they are always going to press when the crowd gets on their back and pushing them forward but it's just frustrating for us."