Bosses see red after late goal denies Leeds United at Huddersfield

Michael Hefele’s late goal gave Town a 2-1 victory and the double over Leeds this year, but the over the top celebrations of their man in charge left a sour taste and led to cards galore from a referee who lost control, was out of his depth throughout and far too one sided in his use of cards.

Wagner ran out of his technical area to join in with his players’ celebrations behind the goal and somehow avoided being sent-off for that. As he walked back to his position, Monk stepped across him and the German responded with a push.

The two bosses were kept apart, but players then joined in with Leeds deeply unhappy at Wagner’s antics and after discussions with his assistant referee Simon Hooper sent both Wagner and Monk to the stand.

The winning goal had owed much to luck as Aaron Mooy’s poor shot was deflected straight into the path of centre-back Hefele, who was only just onside and left clear to plant his shot into the net.

Leeds had looked set to pick up a point after Chris Wood equalised Izzy Brown’s goal in the first half and in truth neither side really looked like scoring after the break.

Leeds boss Monk made three changes from the side that won at Blackburn with Ronaldo Vieira, Souleymane Doukara and Pablo Hernandez brought back in.

They started well as Wood got in behind the Town defence and his shot from a tight angle could only be parried by home keeper Danny Ward.

The game was competitive with tackles snapping in, but little in the way of goalmouth action until the 20th minute when Collin Quaner forced a good save low down from Rob Green.

Leeds breathed a sigh of relief when Pontus Jansson’s attempted clearance cannoned back off Quaner and landed on top of the net.

But a minute later Huddersfield did go ahead as Izzy Brown scored with his first touch after coming on as substitute, netting from close range to put away Kachunga’ low cross when Gaetano Berardi had lost the winger after letting the ball go under his feet.

Leeds hit back in the 35th minute as Kyle Bartley’s knock down put Wood clear and the centre forward flicked the ball over Ward before walking it into the net.

There were appeals for offside, but replays showed Wood was fine and it was a calm finish for his 21st goal of the season.

Only a great block by Berardi kept the scores level as he denied Kachunga then Quaner looked to be through, but Green was out fast to make a great save.

Hefele flashed a header just wide from a corner and the half ended 1-1.

United started the second half better as good play by Stuart Dallas resulted in a low cross for Wood that was well defended by Tommy Smith.

But both sides then cancelled each other out and substitutions were made to try to break the deadlock.

For Leeds, new wingers Alfonso Pedraza and Modou Barrow came on for their debuts. The former almost made an immediate impact as he ran at the home defence and got a good shot in from the edge of the box that was saved by Ward.

Mooy saw an angled shot at the other end saved low down while Town sub Joe Lolley sent a 20-yarder wide.

Huddersfield looked the more likely to get a late goal as Kachunga almost got on the end of a dangerous cross.

They did get their winner after Leeds had a penalty shout denied, the ball was quickly transferred to the other end where the referee deemed that Barrow had fouled. From the free-kick the goal came and United had lost for the third weekend running.

Leeds head coach Monk thought his side were worthy of a point.

He said: “I thought the game was very marginal. We more than deserved a point, but in derby games you have make sure you fall the right side of those margins.

“In the first game we had at home they fell the right side and they did again with that second goal.

“I think we disrupted them very well, stopped them playing and had our moments as well.

“I thought we executed our plan well. The players deserve a lot of credit, it was clear they didn’t deserve to lose.

“It doesn’t change anything for us. If we keep that desire we know we will be in position to win games.”

On the incident at the end with the Huddersfield manager, Monk added: “I can only speak for myself, in my world where I’ve been brought up my values are to have humility, to have respect and to have a bit of class.

“When I don’t see that I feel upon myself to put that right.

“I live by my values and I hold them dearly to myself and to my team, they live by that. So when we see that against us it’s obviously not a good thing to see.”

Match facts

Huddersfield Town 2

(Brown 27, Hefele 90)

Leeds United 1

(Wood 35)

Sunday, February 5, 2017

EFL Championship

Attendance: 22,400

Huddersfield: Ward. Smith, Hefele, Schindler, Lowe, Hogg, Mooy, Elias Kachunga, Palmer (Brown 25), Van La Parra (Lolley 65), Quaner (Wells 65).

Leeds: Green, Ayling, Bartley, Jansson, Berardi, Vieira, Bridcutt, Doukara (Pedraza 62), Hernandez, Dallas, Wood.

Referee: Simon Hooper