NEIL Harris felt Pontus Jansson could have been red-carded during Millwall’s 3-2 defeat to Leeds at Elland Road on Saturday.
Jansson was booked for fouling Jed Wallace with the Lions leading 2-1 in the second half, and Harris sought an explanation from Darren Bond after the game.
“I just spoke to Darren, the referee, before I came in, I wanted to be clear,” Harris said. “He’s given a yellow card for stopping his progress moving forward. I just asked him did he not think it was cynical play by use of the forearm or the elbow, and he said no.
“I’ve only seen it in real time at the moment, and I thought he’s done him on purpose. I need to see it again to judge it.
“It was a key time because it was 2-1 in the game and I thought the fine margins like that fell Leeds’ way quite a few times in the game, the penalty in the first half, the red card incident that could have been.
“But I take nothing away from Leeds, they’re a top side.”
Millwall went in front through Ben Thompson’s third goal in two games, before David Martin saved Patrick Bamford’s penalty for Wallace’s foul on Ezgjan Alioski.
Pablo Hernadez levelled for Leeds in the first half but Millwall regained the lead through a penalty from Ben Marshall who had been fouled by Liam Cooper.
Leeds’ full-back Luke Ayling made it 2-2 and Hernandez got the winner eight minutes from time.
Harris was asked if it was a fair result.
He said: “It’s hard to say because we were leading twice in the game and for us coming to Elland Road it was a good performance in so many ways.
“I was disappointed with the second goal, it comes at a time when we’re not really under pressure, we’re managing the game well, breaking the play up.
“It’s poor, and I said to the boys there if they want to get to the higher reaches of the division or even the next level, you can’t give goals like that away. You can’t give good teams like that a foothold in the game.
“You can talk about how good we were on the counter-attack, how good we were on the ball and how well we defended at times. We stood strong at a sold-out Elland Road.
“Loads moving forward, but ultimately we got nothing from the game. The players, on how they performed for the majority of it, they possibly deserved something.”
Harris was also asked about an incident when Millwall’s players were celebrating their second goal, with objects thrown onto the pitch.
Harris said: “I saw the missiles come on. It’s not my place to comment on that, it’s not my football club.” Lions defender Jake Cooper appeared to be hit by one. “I can’t comment on that at the moment,” Harris added.
Image: Millwall FC