Leeds boss Daniel Farke admitted he was “struggling for words” after his side had two goals disallowed in controversial offside calls at Middlesbrough.
Daniel James’ early strike was enough to send Leeds back to the top of the Sky Bet Championship summit with a 1-0 win but Leeds were on the end of two questionable decisions.
Ao Tanaka struck at the back post in the first half and although the offside flag was raised, replays showed the Japan midfielder was onside.
A similar situation occurred after the break when Patrick Bamford found the net against his old club, but that goal too was swiftly chalked off.
Farke admitted post-match that the decisions were tough to accept and called for the assistant referee in question to be “protected” after suggesting the same official has disallowed offside goals for Leeds in recent games.
He said: “I’m always on the side of the referees because I know it’s a really difficult job, but I’m struggling today. Two disallowed goals, when it’s a tight goal – perhaps the second goal for Patrick was tight.
“What I’m really struggling to find some proper words for, that we have the same assistant referee who has ruled out in the last eight weeks three regular goals offside for us.
“If they were difficult to see, I could perhaps live with the score incidents, but if it’s always two, three, four yards – why do we keep sending this assistant referee to games for Leeds?
“I don’t say anything, but if there is perhaps a coincidence with mistakes against us, at some point you should protect him at least and send him to a different game.
“I’m not sure why he’s always the assistant for us and I’m not sure why in each and every game he rules clear goals out that should stand for us.
“I’m struggling for words because we are playing here for such a big reward, going up to the Premier League, it’s about millions of pounds, then we allow ourselves to have this level – not the referee, I’m always on the side of the referee – of assistant performances, I’m struggling with this to be honest.
“I always want to be understanding. I could make my life easier saying we’ve won the game, everything’s fine. Against Coventry we won the game, against Millwall… but if you always have to fight against adversity it’s difficult. It’s hard to accept.”
It was a frustrating evening for Middlesbrough, who put in an improved second-half display and had chances to level, but despite defeat they remain in the mix for a play-off spot with five games to go.
“We’re disappointed because it’s the result and I think it shows where we feel we are as a team,” Boro boss Michael Carrick said.
“It can’t derail us, it can’t knock us, it can’t affect the season.
“It doesn’t change the season in many ways, the season’s alive, there’s going to be ups and downs every week. We can’t expect to go on a run of always winning every game until the end of the season.
“It’s all to play for, we’re right in there and nothing changes from tonight.”
