Keith Andrews reacts to Eddie Nketiah incident in Leeds draw

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Keith Andrews has told Sky Sports’ live post-match coverage of Leeds United’s draw with Sheffield Wednesday (broadcast on 27/10; 14:21) that he thought Eddie Nketiah should have been sent off, but suggested that he was glad to see the striker avoided a dismissal.

Nketiah was involved in a controversial incident during the second-half of the goalless draw at Hillsborough. As the Arsenal loanee looked to shield the ball from Joey Pelupessy, his arm came out and his elbow caught the Owls midfielder in the face.

The Dutchman went down. But in fairness to him, he seemed to immediately accept Nketiah’s apology once play had been stopped.

Nevertheless, Andrews suggested after the game that the Leeds man could consider himself fortunate to stay on the pitch. Interestingly however, the pundit added that he was happy that a red card was not shown to the 20-year-old.

“Borderline red card,” he told Sky Sports. “If the referee sees that and the officials see that, he goes off. I don’t know if there’s any doubt about that. I don’t know whether it matters whether it’s intentional or unintentional, because that is reckless.

“But I don’t want him to get sent off, so I’m glad because he’s trying to form his way in the game. He’s so young and this whole Bamford/Nketiah debate. It’s not good for him, it’s not good for Bamford. It’s not good for the team. So I’m glad the officials haven’t seen it. But if he does see it, I think he goes.”

The incident does not look great. But it is also difficult to say for certain whether Nketiah purposely threw out an elbow, or whether he was looking to use his arm to fend off an opponent and got things wrong.

The fact that Pelupessy showed no reluctance to shake Nketiah’s hands hints that he deemed the incident to be accidental. But it will interesting to see in the coming days what the officials did make of the clash.