Leeds boss Dennis Wise launched into a familiar tirade against the match officials after Alan Thompson was sent off during the first half of the 1-0 defeat at Saints yesterday Thompson was shown a red card by referee Tony Bates in the 32nd minute after grabbing Jhon Viafara round the neck.

But ex-Saints midfielder Wise was adamant home defender Chris Baird was the guilty party for throwing a punch at the Leeds midfielder.

The incident left Leeds with a mountain to climb, although they held out until six minutes from time when substitute Bradley Wright-Phillips hooked home a dramatic winner.

"I hope everyone shows it and I hope they also show Chris Baird punching Alan Thompson in the face," said Wise.

"The linesman has made the decision but he was 40 yards away. Alan Thompson has pulled Viafara away from Eddie Lewis because they were going to clash, and the officials have misunderstood the situation.

"They also missed Chris Baird punching Alan Thompson.

"I'm waiting to go and see them but they like to get their stories straight so we have to wait and see.

"We will be appealing against it, hopefully they'll change it but it won't change the result.

"I'm always talking about the refs, it's all I've done since I came to Leeds. But they should be penalised, this is people's living and they need to look at themselves".

Saints boss George Burley took a diplomatic view of the incident, insisting: "I didn't see it, it was off the ball.

"But the linesman was only five or 10 yards away. I'm sure if Chris had thrown a punch he would have been sent off."

Wise also took a swipe at Bolton, who recalled key centre-half Lubomir Michalik from his loan spell on Friday and came on as a first-half substitute against Reading after Nicky Hunt had to go off.

"We got a phone call at 12 on Friday saying they wanted to take him back, and then they just put him on the bench," he moaned.

Defeat leaves the once-mighty Whites staring at the drop down to League One, a point from safety after fourth-bottom Hull drew with Stoke - a result which helped Saints' play-off bid along with weekend defeats for Preston (at home to Leicester) and Wolves (at Birmingham earlier today).

Leeds withstood almost constant pressure on their goal, with Grzegorz Rasiak, Kenwyne Jones, Andrew Surman and Viafara all missing gilt-edged chances.

But Wright-Phillips climbed off the bench to tuck away fellow sub Djamel Belmadi's cross to shove Leeds another step closer to the drop.

"We've got to rely on other teams now as well as get our results right," added Wise.

"But it can all change again next Saturday. After 84 minutes here we were fourth from bottom, it's a funny game. I think it's between us and Hull now".

The outlook is brighter for Saints, who are now up to seventh and still on course to gatecrash the play-offs with winnable remaining games against Norwich and Southend.

Results elsewhere again went in their favour, but Burley said: "Today was all about our result. If we didn't win our chances of finishing in the top six would be virtually over.

"We knew Leeds would be fighting for their lives and all credit to them, they made it difficult for us to break them down.

"But we kept at them, we put Bradley on the wing to give us some more finishing power and it paid off. I think we deserved it."

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