SMITH: WHY NOT LET CROWD REF? Bees boss fumes as Heck get first win
BRENTFORD boss Dean Smith accused referee Oliver Langford of being swayed by the Elland Road crowd after his side’s play-off hopes took a blow at Leeds, who ended their tenmatch winless run.
The Bees couldn’t reproduce the free-flowing football that saw them hammer struggling Birmingham 5-0 in midweek, with a John Egan effort from distance the closest they came to scoring.
Liam Cooper’s 31st-minute header was enough to earn the three points, with the hosts’ committed second-half performance limiting the Bees to very few chances.
And Smith, who claimed the winning goal should have been ruled out for offside, believed that the vocal home support heavily influenced some of the officiating decisions.
“We feel aggrieved because the goal changes the game but the goal is offside,” said Smith.
“If you look at our record then we haven’t got many cards. You could have taken the officials off at one stage and let the crowd referee the game.
“You need big decisions to go your way when you come here and they didn’t today.
“We were poor in the second half. We didn’t pass the ball well enough at all to get anything out of the game. We never got our tempo into the game. Neither goalkeeper was really troubled in the second half.”
It took a stunning save from Felix Wiedwald to prevent Brentford from taking the lead with just over 10 minutes played as he acrobatically stopped Egan’s half-volley. It was instead a Leeds centreback who found the net as Cooper glanced Ezgjan Alioski’s free-kick into the bottom corner.
Daniel Bentley then denied Pierre-Michel Lasogga from a tight angle after good work from Samu Saiz as the fired-up hosts looked for a second.
The home crowd began to grow frustrated with the officials as Saiz looked to have been pulled back when running in behind the Bees defence. Then Lasogga raced down on the box before beating a defender and the goalkeeper but his tame effort was cleared off the line by Ryan Woods.
Brentford threw on playmaker Alan Judge and Emiliano Marcondes in a bid to find an equaliser with just over 20 minutes remaining.
Lasogga was put through on goal with Alioski in support but the referee pulled the game back for a foul on Saiz.
Judge saw a free-kick nervously punched away by Wiedwald before Marcondes blazed over the rebound.
Paul Heckingbottom was understandably pleased to pick up his first win since taking over at Leeds.
“Obviously they have been waiting a lot longer than me for that win so I’m relieved,” said Heckingbottom.
“Credit has to go to the players because they performed well and they deserved it.
“Brentford are hard to stop having the ball but it’s where they have the ball which is key.
“We want to get Samuel [Saiz] on the ball as often as possible. I don’t think I make Samuel better on the ball to be honest – he’s a terrific talent, really instinctive – but I can definitely make him better for the team.”