Damien Delaney is not a happy bunny.
The Crystal Palace centre-half has seen his side record a horrendous run of results in 2016. The Eagles have not won a Premier League match since 19th December – a run of results that could see them sucked into a relegation battle.
They looked on course for a valuable point at home to Liverpool yesterday until Corkonian Delaney decided to tackle Christian Benteke in the penalty area, only to try and abort his challenge at the last moment.
His sliding knee made slight contact with the big Belgian’s heel, which was enough for the assistant referee to direct Andre Marriner to award Liverpool a penalty, which Delaney predictably converted to give Jurgen Klopp’s men a 2-1 win.
It sent Alan Pardew into apoplexy and last night Delaney took to Instagram to protest his innocence – at first declaring there was no contact but admitting any “slight contact” was not enough to warrant a penalty.
He also reveals that he told Marriner as much, having allowed himself an hour after the match to calm down.
“I can honestly say I didn’t make contact with benteke today and IF there was slight contact I didnt impede him and certainly didn’t feel there was enough to award a penalty in the 96th min,” wrote the 34-year-old former Republic of Ireland international.
“If a penalty is awarded that late it has to be unequivocal, I waited over an hour to speak with the officials and in fairness to Andre Marriner he said he didn’t think it was a penalty but he trusted his linesman that much he awarded it.
“With the way the game was ref’d and the physicality of both teams it was unbelievably harsh. With how Wilfred and Yannick were man handled by Liverpool players over the course of the game, which I’ve no problem with, it was a really tough decision to take so late. All I can do is swallow it and hope to put this right.”
