Samantha Quek criticised Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford on Twitter following Leeds’ draw against Aston Villa at Elland Road on Sunday.
The 1-1 draw ended any chances of Leeds securing automatic promotion to the Premier League this season, following a run three games without a win. However, it did end a two game losing streak for Marcelo Bielsa’s side as they head into the play-offs.
Quek, an Olympic Gold Medalist in hockey for Team GB, was more focused on one incident of controversy in the game.
P.S Patrick Bamford you’re embarrassing,” he said as she shared a video of an altercation between Bamford and Aston Villa’s Anwar El Ghazi on her personal Twitter account.
El Ghazi was, wrongly, sent off for allegedly elbowing Bamford, after the Leeds striker held his face after being pushed by El Ghazi nowhere near the face, which can be seen in the video.
P.S Patrick Bamford… you’re embarrassing! pic.twitter.com/lsuRAAGIz4
— Sam Quek (@SamanthaQuek) April 28, 2019
Bielsa then surprisingly ordered his players to allow Villa to equalise, with Albert Adomah running through to score into an empty goal and secure a point for Villa.
OPINION
Quek’s comments about Patrick Bamford’s reaction to the incident between himself and Amwar El Ghazi, are harsh but maybe slightly justified. Bamford held his face despite El Ghazi making no contact with the Leeds strikers head, and his reaction got the Villa attacker an unjustified red card. However, in fairness to Leeds Bielsa, in a surprising act of sportsmanship, given everything that was at stake for Leeds ordered his players to let Villa equalise to compensate for the wrongful sending off. Although it is never right to get another player sent off by faking contact, it is something that happens in the heat of battle on the field, players sometimes make strange decisions in an attempt to gain any form of advantage. Bamford may have reacted in the wrong way, but his manager and the rest of his team-mates more than made up for that with the sportsmanship that let Villa get back on level terms. These two sides could well end up meeting in the play-offs and it will be a very interesting encounter now given the incidents that happened in Sunday’s controversial draw.