AdminLeicester City players swarmed referee Benjamin Speedie after Patson Daka was bundled over by Jordan Storey, but advantage was played as Oliver Skipp raced through.
City were denied the opportunity to play against 10 men during their 2-2 draw with Preston, with players and fans appealing strongly for a red card when Storey felled Daka as the striker looked set to latch onto Ricardo Pereira’s through ball.
With no covering defenders, it appeared a textbook denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, usually punished with a sending-off.
However, as Storey went down, Skipp collected the loose ball and carried it into the box, only for his dink to be comfortably saved by Daniel Iversen.
Once the ball went out for a corner, Speedie returned to issue Storey a yellow card. According to Law 12, this was the correct decision: “If the referee plays the advantage for an offence for which a caution/sending-off would have been issued had play been stopped, this caution/sending-off must be issued when the ball is next out of play.
However, if the offence was denying the opposing team an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, the player is cautioned for unsporting behaviour.”
Leicester manager Gary Rowett accepted the ruling without complaint. He said: “The Pato one, where he got brought down, you could argue that is a red card.
But Skippy ends up through with a chance. At that point, do you bring it back? Probably not. If we score, I’m not complaining, nobody’s complaining.”
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