Jamie O'Hara has continued to fume after Tottenham were denied a last-gasp penalty against Leeds United on Monday night. Mathys Tel went from hero to zero when he scored a stunner only to give away a silly penalty after attempting to clear the ball from his own box with an overhead kick.
Spurs pushed for a winner that would have taken them four points above West Ham, but they failed to find one, and they are now just two points clear of the drop zone with two games remaining.
The Tottenham penalty that wasn't
Relegation is still a distinct possibility, though Spurs could have found themselves much closer to safety had they been given a penalty deep into stoppage time. James Maddison went to ground under a risky tackle from Lukas Nmecha, and on first glance, it looked like a stonewall spot kick.
But cameras on the VAR review showed a slight touch of the ball from Nmecha, and no penalty was awarded. The touch on the ball was crucial, especially given the contact with the ball was made on the initial challenge.
There was no second reach for the ball or delay in touching the ball, which makes it a legal tackle. Most agree that if the ball was touched, then it should not have been a penalty, but former Spurs man O'Hara has a very different view.
O’Hara said on Sky Sports: “It’s a penalty. I’m sorry, I don’t care what anyone says. You can show me a million angles of this, but where does the ball move? I don’t believe there is enough movement from the ball and the player. That ball does not move. That is a penalty."
“He bottled it, that ref. We saw a crazy decision the other day at West Ham, which was a foul. But they took an age over that decision. They looked at that for five minutes. They looked at the [Nmecha] challenge for 30 seconds and played on.”
Some Spurs fans may feel the same, but the review was quick because touching the ball on an initial lunge without coming through the player is legal, and once that had been established, there was no need to continue the review.
It was a tough break for Tottenham, and there is no doubting that Nmecha got a little lucky in reaching the ball, given the risky nature of the challenge, but he pulled it off, and he lived to tell the tale.
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