OPINION
Many Leeds United fans will surely furiously agree with Adrian Durham after he boldly claimed Derby County attacker Tom Lawrence would have got banned for diving if he played for the Whites.
The talkSPORT broadcaster revealed that there seemed to be no system in place regarding the punishment for simulation before claiming that if Lawrence played for Leeds he would have got charged, as there seems to be a “thing” against Marcelo Bielsa’s side.
“There seems to be no system if Tom Lawrence was playing for Leeds he probably would have got done,” said Durham on talkSPORT (Monday May 6th, on listen again (10mins 20secs).
“There seems to be this thing against Leeds let’s hope it doesn’t affect them or anybody in the play-offs.”
Lawrence appeared to dive to win a penalty for Derby in the 3-1 win over West Bromwich Albion on Sunday yet it seems he won’t be handed a ban that will cause him to miss the play-offs against Leeds.
According to The Sun the incident has been reviewed and it has been decided that Lawrence will face no further action and is free to potentially help deny Leeds getting to the play-offs.
When you consider that the Whites are set to be without Patrick Bamford for the first-leg of their play-off semi-final clash with Derby, after he was banned retrospectively for simulation, it seems justice hasn’t been served.
Lawrence clearly looked to have gone down without any contact being made in Derby’s win over West Brom and his offence was extremely similar to what saw Bamford have the book thrown at him.
While Durham made the remarks before a decision on Lawrence was reached, if anything his claim will just infuriate Leeds fans even more in hindsight.
Leeds are a man-down for the first-leg against Derby without Bamford to call upon; and it’s baffling why Derby haven’t been put in a similar scenario given how the situations are so comparable.
Many Leeds fans will no doubt feel furious about Lawrence escaping punishment as it does seem like he has gotten away with one and they will more than likely agree that if the 25-year-old was playing for the Whites, he’d be stuck on the sidelines on Saturday.