[Amelia Chaffinch]

.... By insisting his players stand back and let Villa walk through a goal, presumably because play was waved on by one of those hapless refs, Stuart Attwell. Or possibly because Villa's player got sent off for nothing,  yet a Leeds player had just scythed down one of Villa's. I don't know why but he was clearly cross with his players and demanded they allowed them to get a goal back. My question is, if we were to be allowed to walk through a goal, would we score it? 

[Lord Snooty]

Mounie definitely not.

[St Charles Owl]

No need for the ref to stop the game, it wasn’t a head injury. Seems to me the left back for L**ds made it look like he was going to put the ball out of play and the Villa defense stopped as a consequence but instead of putting the ball out he played it forward to Bamford, who was offside anyway. In some ways you have to admire what Bielsa did as being in the spirit of the game, a quality he hasn’t shown so far. But yes it was a bizarre situation.

[Lord Snooty]

I think the Villa players were so incensed because 5 mins earlier, they'd put the ball out on Leeds' request when one of theirs was down. Bielsebub did the right thing, but the boos from the home crowd would suggest the locals weren't impressed with this sporting gesture of fair play.

---

Just in case you haven't seen it......

[talkSAFT]

I wonder whether Revie, Bremner, Hunter, etc would have applauded Bielsa's instruction....
Charlton would rather have scythed Adomah down.

[Lord Snooty]

I wonder whether Revie, Bremner, Hunter, etc would have applauded Bielsa's instruction....
Charlton would rather have scythed Adomah down.

Revie would never have done what Bielsa did.

[Amelia Chaffinch]

The last manager to call them cheats is persona non grata in Leeds and you know who that is ... Brian Clough.

[jjamez]

Always play to the whistle

[themaclad]

Villa player red card rescinded Bamford charged with being a bellend and both clubs charged with failing to control players

[Devongone]

Very untypical of Patrick Bamford, nobody's tough guy, nice, intelligent bloke, made a big mistake going down like that .......... but what do you do once you are down there? You've done it! You can't really get up and say sorry ref, he wanted to hit me but he missed. It was heat of the moment stuff and everybody would re-wind if they could.

As to the incident - see Jack Lester for Chesterfield against Droylsden in the FA Cup - much funnier. We stood back and gave them a goal and they still continued over-dosing on mardy tablets.

All this pretend fair-play of putting the ball out when a player has hardly been touched and starts producing ectoplasm is just so much sham. It'll be fair play when, like snooker, a defender holds up his hand to the referee and calls "Penaty ref' I've handled that!" Unless and until players are prepared to recognise it is only a game and part of what it is about is playing fair ..... then not much will change. And big money will do its best to prevent it becoming a game again.

As for Bielsa, he proved himself a better man than any around him. He did the right thing at a potentially enormous cost to his club. He deserves credit. I only wish what he'd said about the English game were anything like true.

Play hard. Don't moan whatever the opposition do. Play to the whistle. If a player looks badly hurt, let common sense kick in and find the quickest way to stop the game ....... otherwise let the ref' handle it and if she/he's waving play-on that's what you do.