Jeff Stelling blasted Junior Firpo and the Leeds United players for not consoling Illan Meslier after his dreadful late error at Sunderland.
The well-known host reacted via X on 4 October after the Frenchman missed an innocuous bouncing ball in the box to concede an unbelievable 97th-minute equaliser in the 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light.
Alan Browne flicked a ball into the area that looked to have wasted any late threat of an equaliser, only for Meslier to fall past it under no pressure as it went in.
The keeper was understandably shocked but Stelling was not impressed by the lack of support from his teammates, singling out goalscorer Firpo.
He wrote: “Would have been nice to see some Leeds players console Meslier a little more – notably Junior Firpo !! A terrible, terrible mistake but nobody feeling worse than the keeper”.
Junior Firpo and Leeds United hammered after late drama
It isn’t often that something happens in a game that is genuinely difficult to explain but Meslier’s error falls into that category.
His reputation has taken a battering in the past couple of years since he was being linked to the likes of Chelsea [The Athletic] and Manchester United [The Sun].
But the 24-year-old had actually had a fairly solid game up until the end of the game, making the shocking late mistake even more so.
He looked like he couldn’t explain it either afterwards and it was so bizarre that questions may need to be asked about after-effects from suffering an accidental knee to the head from teammate Pascal Struijk in the second half.
Daniel Farke’s side went into the game in the midst of an injury crisis and, inspired by the excellent Willy Gnonto, looked like they were going to come away from the league leaders with a thoroughly professional victory.
Jayden Bogle, who was poor defensively throughout, can’t escape criticism for conceding the reckless free kick that allowed the home side to pump one final long ball forward, but even so Meslier’s error defied explanation.
Firpo was credited with an own-goal, having thought he’d scored an impressive second-half winner, so his frustrations are perhaps unsurprising, even if it will do the Whites no good for Meslier to have a full crisis of confidence as a result so support from teammates is surely needed.
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