Town defender Leif Davis has admitted he feels he let his teammates down following his sending off against Arsenal last month.

Davis will return from his three-match suspension for this weekend’s trip to Leicester City having missed the clashes against Newcastle United, Everton and Brentford previously.

The left-back was dismissed after 32 minutes of the Blues’ 4-0 defeat to the Gunners for a studs-up challenge on Bukayo Saka with Town already trailing by two goals.

“At the time I didn’t really think a lot of it,” Davis said. “I thought a yellow card is fair enough because I’ve made that tackle quite a lot of times. I did that in the Newcastle home game against [Tino] Livramento and won the ball, I did it earlier on against [Leandro] Trossard in the game and won the ball.

“I just saw a gap between his legs and I thought I could win the ball but he stepped across. The quality of the player, he’s quick with the ball with his feet and took the extra step. By the time I had committed I unfortunately hurt his ankle, [but] I never meant to go into a tackle hurting someone like that.

“I was disappointed and I apologised straight away to my teammates as soon as they came in at half-time putting them in that situation. Missing the next three games I felt like I let my team down.”

Following the sending off, there was plenty of negative reaction on social media to the challenge, something Davis says he tried his best to avoid.

“It wasn’t pleasant all the things that I was getting on social media and messages like that,” he said. “I just came off social media for a little bit because you’re going to get them kind of messages.

“Some of them people have probably never kicked a football in their life are saying stuff like that, not just about me but family stuff as well and I’m really a family person.

“It did hit me quite hard but that’s when I realised it’s people that haven’t been in the situation I’ve been in, got to play in the biggest league in the world and I should just look and laugh at the comments that were made.

“I came off social media, it wasn’t a tackle that I wanted to go in and hurt the player, I never would do that in a game of football. It was one of those moments in a game of football that happens.

“A tackle like that happens quite a lot in a game, say a midfielder turns out and he gets stood on, but I went in a bit more harshly and I didn’t mean to go in with that much aggression to try and hurt the player. It was a tough couple of weeks but I feel ready to go again.”

In particular, Arsenal-supporting journalist and media personality Piers Morgan was quick to share his thoughts on Twitter, labelling the former Leeds United full-back as a ‘thug’ for the incident.

“A lot of people could say the same about him,” Davis responded. “It’s comments and what people think, he could say that all he likes but I know I’m not that kind of person.

“I don’t know him personally and people could say that about him, but he could be the best bloke in the world, you never know. You never judge a book by its cover and I’m not one of them kind of people.”

The three-game ban came at the worst possible time for Davis. As a Geordie and boyhood Newcastle fan, it led to him being ruled out of the trip to St James’ Park.
Davis could not hide his disappointment at being denied the chance to play at a stadium that holds so many memories for him.

The 25-year-old was also full of praise for the Blue Army on Tyneside, who were in fine voice after relegation was confirmed following the 3-0 defeat to the Magpies that afternoon.

He said: “That was the game I had all eyes on at the start of the year when the fixtures came out. It’s football, things happen in football and you can’t control that.

“Hopefully it’s not the last opportunity I get to play there, hopefully I can play there in the future. It’s the team I’ve supported all my life and I’d have loved to play against them or play for them, anything like that. It was a disappointing one but it’s football.

“I did travel up with the team, I wanted to be involved with a lot of the games that I could be involved in when I was suspended. I had to get my work done back here as well, especially when we played Everton but that was one game that I really wanted to ask the manager if I could go and experience it all with the team and be there.

“It was relegation so I wanted to be there with the team to make sure everyone was together. The reception we got at the end by the fans was incredible, every single one of them still there at the full-time whistle clapping shows how passionate they are for the club.

“Hopefully we can give something back next year for what they’ve done for us this year.”

Photo: TWTD

ChrisFelix added 06:55 - May 17 I thought at the time he was unlucky to get an instant red. If the incident had been the other way round then yellow at worst.
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Dissboyitfc added 07:31 - May 17 No Piers, the tackle by Keane on Haaland, a tackle he made with hatred, thats a thug! Davis was punished, deservedly so, but Morgan knows how things work on social media, stoking things up like that doiesent help, never liked the bloke, self absorbed _ _ _ _!! Hopefully next season he will be back to his best, been poor on occasions this season IMO.
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grow_our_own added 08:12 - May 17 In the Championship, that isn't a red. Only was because Saka: 1. dramatically jumped three feet in the air and writhed on the ground 2. is England's and a big-four club's golden boy 3. because VAR ultra slow-mo makes a pat on the shoulder look like assault Saka miraculously sprinted around unhindered a few mins after the red was shown and nearly scored two goals. Forget it Leif. Your haters here think you can't defend, and are a Hollywood, glory-boy, kamikazee attacker. I want you to continue making robust defensive challenges next season. The bigger risk for you is timidity in defence.

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londonben added 08:42 - May 17 I think Arteta summed it up very fairly - it was a nasty tackle that deserved a red but clearly no malice in it. Luckily didn’t cost us anything as the season was long done, he’ll learn from it and come back better. Gutted for him that he didn’t get to play at SJP though. Next season hopefully we will have a stronger midfield that can protect the defence better and he can get back to bombing down the wing, without leaving us so exposed at the back. Such a good attacking player, but with our lack of mobility in midfield it did leave us wide open a lot this year.

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Keanos_Barmy added 08:54 - May 17 Deservedly sent off but the game was lost anyway. Benefitted us in the subsequent matches as we have looked far more solid worth Greaves at left back.
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Keanos_Barmy added 08:55 - May 17 *with
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flykickingbybgunn added 10:07 - May 17 We hope Leif learns from this. I believe he will. Come back stronger.
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rossi added 10:19 - May 17 so he should be - pure stupidity
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Bazza8564 added 11:13 - May 17 We've learned a lot of lessons from our year in the PL, this is one of the painful ones, both for Lief and for the Club. Red card all day, Saka's movement was too quick, Arteta correct as Londonben says. I don't mind Arteta having a point of view, Saka is his player after all. But Piers Morgan is different matter. And a Di*k!
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billlm added 11:17 - May 17 No big loss at all, Townsend greaves better defenders than him, How many times can one so called professional be the wrong side of an attacker, Good championship player woeful premiership player with us, May fair better with an established prem team as there better players cover better, I blame McKenna for some of his downfall this year you can't play that far forward as a defender in a team learning about the premiership, Worked in league one and championship because we were a better team than most, The Saka tackle wasn't good but I guess he didn't realize he'd have an actress rolling around like he did,

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Fozrat70 added 11:42 - May 17 I would like to see Townsend played at left back with Lief playing further forward as a left sided attacking mid fielder, I think that would be an extremely strong left hand side, Townsend I think is better defensively minded then lief who is more attack minded.
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Karlosfandangal added 13:11 - May 17 Davis has been brilliant over the last 2 seasons but I feel he is not able to run up and down the line plus defend in the Prem. Town will need an up grade but feel he will do us well in Championship if he can stay ahead of Townsend
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johnwarksshorts added 13:44 - May 17 Leif has been brilliant for us. Arguably the best left back when we were in the championship. In the Premiership he hasn't performed well, primarily due to the roll he has which is too much for him in a higher league getting forward and defending. Comments on social media are sure to affect the young man. I'm glad he's had a break from it. Morgan being Morgan as usual and stirring things up. It's all white noise Leif.

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Gforce added 15:15 - May 17 Leif...just ignore Morgan an absolute w@@ker.
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grinch added 17:08 - May 18 One of the first correct statements made by a town player for ages...yes you dld let everone down and I think this season has shown why Leeds let you go as you are not good enough for prem
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littlestoneblue added 15:25 - May 26 I wouldn't mind seeing Leif leave as I think we might be signing Cresswell again, Leif couldn't learn from his constant faults of bombing down the left and getting caught out with the long ball down to the winger, He was terrible at LB Towsend was much better more solid. Also, Morsy was found to make constant mistakes like the pass back in the West Ham game trying to walk the ball out of defence plus loads of yellow cards so hopefully Morsy will move on and we build a stronger midfield and stop playing 4-2-3-1 and play 4-4-2 if we want to make an instant return to the PL then McKenna has to create a much stronger team like Burnley and Leeds have done win it outright.

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