Millwall's Jake Cooper speaks out on his Leeds United Gnonto scuffle, Rodon incident and harsh treatment — YEP 29/3/24

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Jake Cooper appeared to narrowly escape a red card when Millwall took on Leeds United before the international break

By Will Jackson

Millwall defender Jake Cooper believes he was unfairly treated against Leeds United last time out. The Whites won the game 2-0 before the international break to hit the Championship summit for the first time this season, but the game wasn't without controversy amid a couple of incidents involving the Lions' Cooper.

Cooper was shown a yellow card following a coming together with Wilfried Gnonto early in the contest and many inside Elland Road felt the centre-back should have been given his marching orders before the break. The defender clattered into Joe Rodon inside the penalty area and left the Leeds man in a crumpled heap on the floor holding his face.

The referee dismissed Leeds' claims for a penalty, something ex-Premier League official Dermot Gallagher has since described as a mistake, meaning Cooper escaped punishment and saw out the remainder of the contest.

As he prepares to feature in Millwall's Good Friday fixture against West Bromwich Albion, Cooper has spoken out about the Leeds fixture.

"I felt a bit harshly done by," he told the South London Press. "I said to the ref as we were walking in at half-time, 'You know I have given one little tiny foul away and you are telling me I’m on my last warning here'.

"Obviously they slow-motioned the challenge in the penalty area with Rodon. If they think that is a penalty, fair enough. But that’s never been a penalty.

“The little bit of a scuffle in the corner (with Gnonto), trying to get our fans going. Having that kind of battle mentality we went into the game with – tried to spark that off. It worked to an extent but I still managed to get booked even though I barely did anything.”

He added: “I was just trying to bide my time and wind him up a little bit – like we were the whole team, just to see if they’d react. He did a little bit. It’s one of those gameplaying things – we did it with Norwich at The Den.

"We were just trying to spark something off – you know what Elland Road is like, you need to have something go in your favour or you’re in big trouble. I don’t think the ref was completely fair with us."

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