IRATE Leeds United manager David O'Leary last night labelled the decision by Tring referee Graham Barber not to award Leeds United a crucial second-half penalty as "a disgrace" - and his opinion was backed by Sunderland boss Peter Reid.

Leeds were trailing 2-0 when Republic of Ireland international Robbie Keane went down in the penalty area to a challenge from Swiss international fullback Bernt Haas in the 68th minute.

Burt instead of awarding a spot-kick Mr Barber astonished the Leeds manager by booking the striker for diving!

A furious O'Leary said: "The penalty decision was a disgrace - I saw it straight away and my view was confirmed by the television replay.

"I said to the referee afterwards that everyone makes mistakes and he should be big enough and brave enough to say that he was wrong - he certainly shouldn't have penalised the player twice by booking him."

Reid admitted: "I thought it looked a penalty."

Leeds lost their unbeaten record and the chance to retake top position in the Premiership, and O'Leary thought a penalty kick would have put them back into the game.

He said: "We gave away a soft first goal - Sunderland had a good little spell just after half time and they took their chances.

"We were two goals down out of nothing and we needed that penalty to give us a chance - if we had scored then we would have been in with a chance.

"I thought we should have got something out of the game but we didn't and now we've got to go on another run."

O'Leary also thought that the linesman should have seen a controversial clash between Emerson Thome and Alan Smith in the first half when the Brazilian central defender seemed to stamp on his opponent's leg, but no action was taken.

"The linesman was five yards away - I was 25 yards away and I could see it," he said.

Leeds were without their Australian internationals Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell, while influential midfielder Lee Bowyer was injured.

O'Leary said he felt the other championship contenders had stronger squads than Leeds - "I think we have done as well as we can - I have no complaints but we are at our maximum."

Reid was delighted with his side's performance, which followed hard on the heels of a defeat at the then bottom club, Leicester City.

He said: "Against a very, very good side our goalkeeper has kept us in the game with a good save from Robbie Keane and our two goals were terrific.

"In general the lads played with a lot of passion and a lot of desire and played a lot of good football.

"I think it is the best we have played all season and it is a standard we now have to maintain. I hope this victory will kick-start our season, but we have to go to Liverpool next week, which is always difficult."

Reid admitted that he had felt under pressure as his side had slumped down the table following a poor run which had brought one point from a possible 12.

He said: "You always feel pressure as a manager - but I don't think it is real pressure because there are so many people out of work. It is the pressure that's involved in being a football manager - I have been a manager since 1990 and you get your low times when teams are not playing well and it is how you handle it.