Aston Villa midfielder Conor Hourihane has escaped punishment for an incident involving Leeds United’s Mateusz Klich.
Several Leeds fans have admitted to being baffled and yet, not all that surprised after the Football Association decided to not hand a punishment to Aston Villa’s Conor Hourihane following Sunday’s draw between the two sides.
The game at Elland Road at the weekend continues to be a talking point. The Whites took the lead when Tyler Roberts played in Mateusz Klich while Villa wanted the ball kicked out as Jonathan Kodjia lay on the pitch injured.
Hourihane was arguably the Villa player that took the greatest exception to Klich finding the back of the net as he immediately grabbed the Poland international to spark a melee involving most of the players on the pitch.
Once everything had calmed down slightly, Stuart Attwell made a decision that summed up his woeful performance quite nicely as he sent off Anwar El Ghazi. Television pictures quickly proved that the Villa winger had done nothing wrong in the scuffle, and Patrick Bamford had dived to get his opponent in trouble.
And in fairness, there do not appear to be any Leeds fans on social media defending Bamford’s actions or arguing with the news that he is set to be handed a two-match ban for deceiving the official (via Yorkshire Evening Post).
But the Elland Road faithful were infuriated by the FA’s decision to not punish Hourihane after other television pictures showed the Villa midfielder punching Klich following the goal. The Yorkshire Evening Post reports that three former officials decided that it was not violent conduct.
Leeds have had previous this season in seeing opposition players get away with incidents like this. Sergi Canos somehow avoided punishment for headbutting Gjanni Alioski earlier in the campaign – in a game in which Dean Smith was also in the away dugout – and this latest decision has left plenty of supporters stunned.
Here is what some of the Leeds fans made of Hourihane avoiding punishment…
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