21-year-old Leeds United youngster Paudie O’Connor had a midweek to both remember and forget for loan club Blackpool.
The Limerick born centre-half moved to Bloomfield Road on a loan spell over the summer for the full 2018/19 campaign as he continues to develop as a player and he’d have learnt a lot about the highs and lows in the game on Wednesday evening as they faced Arsenal in EFL Cup fourth round action.
Paudie O'Connor goal & red card #lufc pic.twitter.com/RuLMkUEdfK
— Sam Vase-Werkin (@Sam_Vase_Werkin) October 31, 2018
Trailing 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium, O’Connor gave them a lifeline six minutes after the hour mark as he found the back of the net to score their only goal of the game after the hosts had been reduced to ten men. With six minutes remaining in normal time, any hope of a complete fightback were over as he received a straight red for a challenge (the clip shows it wasn’t pretty but similar has seen only a yellow depending on what your name is) on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Def not a red was a booking but not a red Ref conned by the player tbh
— Kenneth Roy Brown (@kennybrown1964) November 1, 2018
Leeds utd I believe ????
— bielsa’s lucky blue bucket (@delwright21) October 31, 2018
reckless and endangering, 100% red
— Archie (@ArchieTheLeper) October 31, 2018
Good tackle!
— dux3y (@Dux3y) October 31, 2018
Harsh lesson maybe, but it was his second goal in ten appearances for the side so it hasn’t been a bad spell by any means so far. With four appearances for Leeds at the tail end of the 2017/18 campaign, hopefully, he’ll continue to make the most of his time with them.
Some of those responding couldn’t hide their bias but I’m ignoring those reactions.