Jackett: Fans Intimidated Officials

Kenny Jackett said that Bradford City fans intimidating the match officials helped them to a late equaliser in today's game.

Kristian O'Leary was sent off in the 85th minute for an off the ball incident involving striker Dean Windass.

The referee consulted with his assistant before awarding the penalty kick, which gave the hosts a rather underserved point.

Jackett said: 'I saw two players competing in the box. Then, I saw Dean Windass get hold of people, make a reaction to the crowd and then go down. He has taken a gamble and it has paid off for him.

'I saw the incident as a case of six and two threes. O'Leary was marking Windass and Windass had grabbed hold of him and gone to the floor. O'Leary did not strike him, but the crowd has reacted to their centre forward going down. It was a harsh decision.

'The crowd has intimidated the officials. It happened like that when we were at Huddersfield a fortnight ago. Officials have got to be strong.

'The penalty decision came from the linesman and it has cost us two points. I think it is worth an appeal.'

Bradford's Marc Bridge-Wilkinson said: 'I thought we were worth a point, but we were disappointed after the good start we made and we failed to capitalise on that.

'We were disappointed with the two goals we conceded and we felt we could have done better.

'The consensus in our changing room after the match was that Dean Windass had been elbowed when he was on the ground.'

Today's draw means we go down two places to 7th and out of the play-off zone.

Swansea face a tough match next weekend when Nottingham Forest visit the Liberty Stadium.

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