Leeds United fight back to earn a fortunate point at Brighton
James Riach at the Amex Stadium
The Brighton manager, Gus Poyet, emotionally branded Neil Warnock a "hypocrite" following a remarkable draw against Leeds United, which included two goals from Craig Mackail-Smith, three penalties awarded and a result that flattered the away side.
Mackail-Smith, who almost joined Leeds during the summer, scored twice before his second penalty of the evening was saved by Paddy Kenny, ensuring Luciano Becchio's deflection on Michael Brown's shot earned Leeds a point.
Poyet, who spent 12 months at Elland Road as the assistant manager six years ago, was scathing of Lee Mason's decision to award Leeds a penalty in the first half after Luke Varney went down under the challenge of Bruno Saltor.
"I try to be calm and not get involved in all this but what would have happened if one of my players dived, the way that Mr Varney dived? What would Mr Warnock say? He would probably destroy him. Should I?" he said. "Everybody talks about the rest but they don't talk about themselves. If it was my player he dived but because it was his player he was pushed. It's a funny one, we call it hypocrisy. He's in the list of hypocrites now, Neil, unfortunately. He went to the other side – hypocrite."
Poyet was also unhappy that Brown remained on the pitch following a foul on Andrea Orlandi that resulted in a yellow card in the 10th minute and subsequent perceived infringements.
He added: "Mr Brown, who had an absolutely fantastic game and I'm pleased for Michael because I played with him, but he shouldn't have been on the pitch and everyone knows that."
Albion's potent attacking force of Will Buckley, Ashley Barnes, Orlandi and Mackail-Smith, full of energy and creativity, combined to great effect and caused Leeds serious problems until the penalty that opened the scoring after 16 minutes.
Buckley danced through the United defence and tumbled over the challenge of the visiting captain, Lee Peltier. Mackail-Smith made no mistake from the spot, blasting straight down the middle of Kenny's goal.
Brighton should have been two up but for a horrendous miss from Orlandi. A swift break down the right saw the ball lifted to the far post but the Spanish winger could only divert it into the turf and woefully over the bar – a bad miss, but nothing compared with Varney's howler for Leeds against Southampton in midweek.
The referee then adjudged that Saltor had shoved Varney in the area, levelling things up and making it one penalty apiece as El-Hadji Diouf equalised.
Two minutes into the second half Brighton regained control after Leeds allowed Buckley time on the left to pull the ball back across goal, where Mackail-Smith guided it in via a slight deflection.
Warnock's side somehow found themselves level with 25 minutes remaining, Brown sweeping a shot goalwards from the edge of the area and seeing it glance off Becchio to take it past Thomas Kuszczak.
The drama was not over as Sam Byram hauled Mackail-Smith down and Mason awarded the third penalty of the match, a feat he had also managed in Wednesday night's Capital One Cup tie between Chelsea and Manchester United. However, the Brighton striker was denied his hat-trick by an excellent save from Kenny.
"I think it was a super point. A lot of teams would have gone under, a never-say-die attitude instead of going under," said Warnock. "Gus is not happy, is he? He wants to win a game of football. It was nice to show a bit of guts and Yorkshire grit. Paddy Kenny, I thought he showed what a cheap buy he was."
When asked about the contentious decisions, he said: "They're on about Brown should have got sent off, somebody says Luke Varney dived, well he got pushed, you can see he got pushed."
One manager was certainly happier than the other but Poyet was pleased with Brighton's display. "I enjoy watching my team play," he said. "I would pay to watch them play football."