Peterborough United chairman believes refereeing performance played a part in Harry Leonard's injury
Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony believes the refereeing performance of Ben Atkinson contributed to Harry Leonard’s nasty neck injury last weekend.
MacAnthony, speaking on the latest edition of his Hard Truth podcast, revealed he had to be restrained from rushing to speak to the officials after the 1-0 League One home defeat at the hands of Plymouth Argyle.
Leonard suffered a horrible landing on his head and neck area after he was challenged while in the air by visiting midfielder Joe Ralls. MacAnthony was keen to stress there was no malicious intent from Ralls, but he felt Atkinson’s willingness to let many first-half fouls from Plymouth players go unpunished by cautions was a factor in Leonard suffering ‘whiplash’ type injuries.
Posh picked up eight yellow cards – including two for Peter Kioso who was sent off – in the game compared to Plymouth’s four.
“If I told the truth about what I saw I would be fined to high heaven,” MacAnthony said. “They committed something like 25 fouls to our 12 in the game and yet we picked up all the bookings. We like to keep the game moving, but the referee allowed them to foul us constantly in the first-half.
"It was just like the Oxford play-off game from a couple of seasons back when the referee was too weak early on to properly deal with the constant fouling of our wingers.
“Harry could easily have been critically injured because the game wasn’t managed properly. He went up for a header to clear a ball near our penalty area and there was a very physical challenge and Harry landed on his neck. We were all very concerned. The Plymouth player didn’t deliberately foul him, but heavy challenges weren’t dealt with properly while our players kept getting booked for dissent.
"I had to be restrained from going downstairs to see the officials and I’ve never felt like that in 19 years.
"These aren't excuses. Plymouth were physical and bullied us off the park, but they deserved to win. We were very flat. A lot of teams play like Plymouth in League One and we have find a way to cope with it. We were rudderless and our experienced players looked spooked by a poor start, which to be fair could easily have included Tom O’Connor getting sent off in the first five minutes.
"There’s a reason why we are not in the top two and that’s our inconsistency, but we are building, putting a squad together, while also moving players on.
“We let Plymouth play their game and we didn’t play our game at all. We hardly had a shot. We have beaten Cardiff, Stockport and Bolton at home so we should be beating Plymouth.”
Leonard was taken to hospital for tests after the incident, but he was back at home and confirming there was no major damage on social media on Saturday night.