{"id":355445,"date":"2025-08-19T00:20:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T00:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355445\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T00:20:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T00:20:21","slug":"ethan-laird-penalty-manufactured-in-blackburn-v-birmingham-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/355445\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethan Laird penalty ‘manufactured’ in Blackburn v Birmingham City"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Exclusive<\/p>\n

Credit: Birmingham City YouTube \/ Sky Sports Football<\/p>\n

\"Harri <\/p>\n

Mon 18 August 2025 16:26, UK <\/p>\n

Jay Stansfield was fortunate to score from the penalty spot as Birmingham City staged a late comeback against Blackburn Rovers, according to Keith Hackett.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA official exclusively told Football Insider<\/strong> that Ethan Laird<\/a> manufactured a situation where referee Oliver Langford had to award a spot-kick at Ewood Park.<\/p>\n

Chris Davies<\/a>\u2018 side were searching for an equaliser after Todd Cantwell<\/a> scored the opener just five minutes into the second half on Saturday, 16 August, and that was handed to the Blues on a plate.<\/p>\n

As the clock ticked into the 90th minute, Stansfield tucked away a penalty after Laird was brought down by a combination of Sidnei Tavares and Lewis Miller, but Hackett is not convinced that a spot-kick was the right decision.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Birmingham City complete dramatic turnaround v Blackburn Rovers<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article contains exclusive comments from ex-PGMOL chief, FIFA official and former professional referee Keith Hackett<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the Blues getting back into the game via the penalty, Lyndon Dykes popped up with an incredibly-timed winner away from home, netting in the eighth minute of added time.<\/p>\n

Davies has built an incredible squad for the Championship, adding Demarai Gray, Kyogo Furuhashi<\/a>, Bright Osayi-Samuels, and Marvin Ducksch during the summer transfer window at St Andrew\u2019s Park.<\/p>\n

MORE FOOTBALL INSIDER STORIES<\/p>\n

But it was Laird, who arrived from Man United<\/a> in July 2023, who played the vital role in getting the promotion-targeting side back into the game before Dykes won it at the death.<\/p>\n

\"BirminghamJay Stansfield scored from the penalty spot.<\/p>\n

Their match against Ipswich Town was equally as controversial, with one Birmingham fan likely to be facing a major ban<\/a> and assault charges for joining a mass brawl before being taken out by stewards.<\/p>\n

Ethan Laird lucky to win Birmingham penalty<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider<\/strong>, the former referee said: \u201cI\u2019m less convinced about this decision. I think it\u2019s manufactured, and the referee has bought it. It shouldn\u2019t have been a penalty kick.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDefenders have to take great care because a careless challenge can quickly become a penalty kick, but the player seems to have gone down before the contact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"KeithKeith Hackett was unconvinced by Birmingham City\u2019s penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe referee is in a really good position, so it\u2019s one he should have turned down. As referees, we can sometimes work on signals, and the defender gave nothing that said, \u2018I\u2019m innocent\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blues are set to take on Oxford United at St Andrew\u2019s Park next, welcoming the U\u2019s on Saturday, 23 August.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Posts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Birmingham City YouTube \/ Sky Sports Football Mon 18 August 2025 16:26, UK Jay Stansfield was fortunate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,12905,29504,748,393,15957,4884,2696,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-355445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city","10":"tag-blackburn-rovers","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-ethan-laird","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-keith-hackett","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115052572113356109","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}