Patrick Bamford caused outrage on QPR+ on Wednesday night when Asmir Begovic was sent off for the London club in their 1-0 defeat at Leeds United.
The ex-Stoke goalkeeper was shown a straight red card for lunging in at Bamford with one of his boots high up in the air
Although it didn’t look as though any contact was made with Bamford, who jumped out of the way in order to avoid a serious injury, the referee sent Begovic off for dangerous play.
QPR’s in-house commentators then accused Bamford of diving and cheating to get Begovic sent off.
As quoted by the Daily Mail, one of the commentators said: “There’s no touch he’s a diving cheat.
While Bamford was about to take the resulting free-kick, they continued: “Bamford the cheat will take the free-kick, left-footed from outside the box.
Bamford clearly made an effort to get out of the way of a horrific, wild lunge by Begovic.
If Bamford didn’t do that, there would be stories in the news on Thursday about the striker’s recovery from a serious injury.
Instead, they’re talking about him diving and cheating because he didn’t want to get caught in the chest or above by a goalkeeper’s flailing boot.
Did Bamford appeal to the referee for a free-kick? No, he didn’t. He put his hands in the air almost straight away to show some kind of innocence about what happened.
He knew he wasn’t touched but he still had to do what he did.
Begovic’s sending off was the correct call too because it was dangerous play.
You don’t need to make contact with a player to be sent off these days.
Challenges like that should never happen because they could result in a serious injury so while Bamford has been known to play-act in the past, he didn’t on this occasion.
