Unbelievable Jeff.


(anger3)(anger3)(anger3)


https://twitter.com/alexndrjohnson/status/896391788176580609

The ball has been placed according to the refs instructions. Ball has been played therefore is alive. Striker perfectly within his rights to go for it. End. If Town had done this we'd be praising the attacker for his quick thinking.

I think the irk is the striker isnt 10 yards away

Quoted from LH

The ball has been placed according to the refs instructions. Ball has been played therefore is alive. Striker perfectly within his rights to go for it. End. If Town had done this we'd be praising the attacker for his quick thinking.

The rules state that an opponent must be 10 yards away when the free kick is taken, He doesn't look 10 yards away to me so the ref got it wrong in my opinion and the goal should have been disallowed.

If, when a free kick is taken, an opponent is closer to the ball than the required distance, the kick is retaken unless the advantage can be applied; but if a player takes a free kick quickly and an opponent who is less than 9.15 m (10 yds) from the ball intercepts it, the referee allows play to continue. However, an opponent who deliberately prevents a free kick being taken quickly must be cautioned for delaying the restart of play. from the fa website.

If the striker wasn't 10 yards away then why did he take it so quickly? Clarke misjudged the weight of the pass plain and simple. I have never seen a ref stop play for a player not being 10 yards away after a free kick is taken.

Agreed Clarke made a school boy error for all his experience 1. He failed to notice how close the striker was and 2. it was such a sloppy back pass he nonchalantly flicks it back without looking Macca had no chance.

Quoted from Les Brechin

The rules state that an opponent must be 10 yards away when the free kick is taken, He doesn't look 10 yards away to me so the ref got it wrong in my opinion and the goal should have been disallowed.

I wonder if the players eloquently explained that to the ref ?
If they had pointed that out to the ref he may have realised he had made a mistake.
If the player protests were more focussed on the basis that they dont believe the free kick had been taken then the ref clearly saw it as being so as it had been kicked back from the place the ball was placed.

I am not sure that the ref was actually looking at the ball, think he had turned his back to move up the pitch in anticipation of the kick being launched.  

I was at the game and saw the clip of the goal again. I struggle to understand how anyone can blame Clarke for a crap back pass - he is clearly laying it back to Macca to take the kick. Then, a player is less than 10 yards away intercepts the ball. And some people on here are blaming a) Clarke, b) Macca, or c) Slade.  Ref made a howler, ruined a good contest, we got beat by a better team. How hard is that to swallow for some?

I reckon Cov would have nicked it 1-0 near the end otherwise. Can see them being promotion contenders but i thought they looked a bit toothless in the box.

If we waited until players were ten yards for all quick free kicks we'd be there all day. You've got to see why the ref has given the goal Les?

After looking at the clip several times my thoughts are,

Why did Clarke kick the ball at all, he should have left it to Macca to take from that spot,

Their player was not 10 yards away so you would think the ref would had asked us to retake the kick.

Was the ref making up for the blatent penalty he didn't give Coventry 10 mins earlier  :-/

Quoted from grimsby pete

After looking at the clip several times my thoughts are,

Why did Clarke kick the ball at all, he should have left it to Macca to take from that spot,

Their player was not 10 yards away so you would think the ref would had asked us to retake the kick.

Exactly what we said whilst at the match, coupled with why the f... Does Macca insist on coming out & taking free kicks 30 yards out from goal?

Plain & simple Clarke's error and only possible reason for disallowing the goal is the ten yard rule which I admit at the game passed me by at the time. Without that error could have got 0-0 for a hard fought and maybe undeserved point but lets hope for better entertainment in next 22 home matches!!!!!!!

Quoted from pizzzza

If the striker wasn't 10 yards away then why did he take it so quickly? Clarke misjudged the weight of the pass plain and simple. I have never seen a ref stop play for a player not being 10 yards away after a free kick is taken.

You see it all the time when a player blocks a free kick being taken, that is the exact same rule. Personally I'd say it was quite obvious that Town didn't think they'd restarted play because Clarke must have noticed the man being there and it's such a nonchalant flick I'd be astonished if he'd passed the ball like that whilst intending to restart play.

What irked me was I don't think the ref was actually watching the incident which is why there was such confusion. His actions and his body language showed he didn't know what was going on and if you're unsure of what has happened and not actually watching the game, how on earth can you give a goal or claim that the ball was in play?

Quoted from mariner91

You see it all the time when a player blocks a free kick being taken, that is the exact same rule. Personally I'd say it was quite obvious that Town didn't think they'd restarted play because Clarke must have noticed the man being there and it's such a nonchalant flick I'd be astonished if he'd passed the ball like that whilst intending to restart play.

What irked me was I don't think the ref was actually watching the incident which is why there was such confusion. His actions and his body language showed he didn't know what was going on and if you're unsure of what has happened and not actually watching the game, how on earth can you give a goal or claim that the ball was in play?

I've paused the highlights and the referee is nowhere in sight when Clarke pushes the ball towards McKeown. He was probably pushing up the pitch towards the Pontoon end and my guess is he didn't even see the 'free kick' being taken

It's a goal in my opinion.

Clarke in my opinion was taking the free kick and where Clarke was standing was where the foul was comitted, you wouldn't then pass it back to the keeper to take 10 yards back would you? Clarke didn't expect their striker to react that quickly, very few players would so Clarke at the time thought the pass without properly looking was alright, just a stupid mistake but a legitimate goal in my opinion.

If Clarke had placed the ball and passed it quickly two yards right to Davies (as an example) no-one would be arsed that the striker is not ten yards away. He's placed the ball and then passed with the strength of a one legged mouse back to McKeown so the only person at fault is Clarke. Take away all emotional attachment to it because as I said before if we'd have scored it we'd be praising the striker. We move on to next week.

Quoted from LH

If Clarke had placed the ball and passed it quickly two yards right to Davies (as an example) no-one would be arsed that the striker is not ten yards away. He's placed the ball and then passed with the strength of a one legged mouse back to McKeown so the only person at fault is Clarke. Take away all emotional attachment to it because as I said before if we'd have scored it we'd be praising the striker. We move on to next week.

Irrelevant. The fact is that the striker is nowhere near ten yards away and gained an advantage (a pretty fucking big advantage given the state of the game) from being there. That's against the rules and shouldn't count.

The problem is, the player within 10 yards actually moves to block Clarke playing the long ball. So it's not as though he's just fortunately there, he's there technically breaking the rules.

Absolute shocker from Clarke. Can't believe anyone is disputing whether it should have stood.

The ball was placed at the right spot and the free kick was taken. Although the ball is under hit.
I was sat next to a referee and he stated he would have allowed the goal.
To be honest it was embarrassing watching the players (and supporters) trying to convince the referee otherwise.

Not irrelevant though is it when the law gets overlooked multiple times week in week out? Uphold the rules properly and refs get shouted at for being pedantic. The ball has been placed so the next touch by the team who were awarded the kick makes the ball active!

Like I said if it happened at the other end no-one on here is whinging and we're laughing at Coventry.

I've only seen it on a replay and for me if I was Macca I wouldn't have made an attempt of getting the ball when their player nipped In. Sounds daft but refs go on body language and Macca clearly felt the ball was live

Quoted from LH

Not irrelevant though is it when the law gets overlooked multiple times week in week out? Uphold the rules properly and refs get shouted at for being pedantic. The ball has been placed so the next touch by the team who were awarded the kick makes the ball active!

Like I said if it happened at the other end no-one on here is whinging and we're laughing at Coventry.

If the player isn't ten yards but doesn't interfere with play then why would it need to be retaken or even mentioned? It only becomes relevant once the player has gained an advantage or disrupted play, like with offside.

The striker today isn't stood between Clarke and McKeown is he? At what point is he active when he starts maybe 120• behind the direction the ball is played to? The active/non-active thing is a huge grey area that it seems the authorities can't change to black and white.

At the time the ball was played I the Ref was making his way to the other side of the pitch. It wasn’t until he noticed the other outfield players rushing towards our goal that he turned around and bolted back like he had witnessed the whole scenario.

Before this incident, I noted that on another free kick being taken, he focused his attention on the players in the box, without a care in the world from where the ball was delivered from.

Rightly or wrongly, but before that  - they had a stonewall penalty turned down but as their striker was about to shoot (can't remember who it was) they just kicked his feet away - so to be fair it did even out,but the ref was pretty awful all afternoon

If you try and take a quick free kick and accidentally pass it to an opponent 5 yards away it doesn't get retaken, because you've chosen to take it. It's a massive error by Clarke.

I'm 50/50 on this one. I can understand why the goal stands, but there's also two or three things going on that don't make it clear-cut for me - most have already been discussed.

The one thing I'm still not sure on is the positioning of the linesman in all of this. He was stood much further back from where Clarke took the free kick - in line with McKeown - so surely that's the linesman indicating where the kick should be taken from?

Keepers always look across to the linesman to check they're taking the free kick from the right place. I can 100% believe that it was a crap back pass by Clarke, but I also think McKeown would've 100% picked that ball up and replaced it in line with the linesman to take the free kick, had it come to that.

As some of you will know I thought the goal was dodgy at the time. But looking at the replay it was a good goal.

When taking a free kick you can get ready and have all players get 10 yards away. Or you can take it quickly no matter where everyone is. Nothing wrong there.

The striker was behind the ball and not in the direction of where it was played. No obstruction.

The ball had been placed. It wasn't moving. It was kicked towards a team mate. Legitimate free kick.

The linesman or ref hadn't said that it needed to go back. So it was in the right place.

I am not surprised that the ref wasn't looking. He was going in the direction that the ball should have gone in. He has the linesmen to help him. He checked with them on if the goal should stand.

One question. What is your GK doing being out that far? Haven't you got an outfield player that can kick the ball?

Shocker from Clarke, blatant goal. Just before he plays that bottom  back pass, he gestured to try and loft a through ball early and thinks better of it, so clearly he believes the ball is placed and set for a kick to be taken. Mckeown hasn't helped him to be fair and there's no reason for him to take it, but it's a blatant goal. If Clarke did play it forward quickly like he looked like he was going to before thinking better of it, and we'd scored, we wouldn't of noticed the close proximity of the eventual goal scorer. If every free kick required all players to be 10 yards away then we would never have seen the millions of goals from "quick" free kicks over the years. The whistle had gone. The ball was placed, he played it, it's a blatant goal.

Slade said the whistle hadn't gone, and the neutral TV pundits last night both felt that the goal should not have been allowed as Clarke was clearly knocking the ball to his keeper to take the free kick.

Whatever the truth of it, it shouldn't have happened, but it has and that's that.

Quoted from chaos33

Slade said the whistle hadn't gone

Oh well that's all right then, it can't be a goal because Slade said so !!

I know you've got it in for Slade,  but don't be so peevish. A previous poster said the whistle had gone. I was just pointing out that Slade said it hadn't. I don't actually know myself as I was in the Pontoon.

I don't think the goal should have been allowed but we were stupid to allow it to happen. Worse than conceding, was the effect it had on our players, who totally lost their focus.

Quoted from grimsby pete

After looking at the clip several times my thoughts are,

Why did Clarke kick the ball at all, he should have left it to Macca to take from that spot,

Their player was not 10 yards away so you would think the ref would had asked us to retake the kick.

Looking at it again Pete makes a valid point Clarke signalled to Macca probably just to pass it back for Macca to take the free kick causing confusion all round.  The striker sees his chance and nips in and Macca thinks the ball is in play and scores.

Clarke at fault next time just fecking leave it to Macca that is the usual way.

I think Pete makes the key point - if Macca is going to come up and take it, why is there a need for Clarke to touch the ball at all? Leave it there for James and there's no debate about whether or not the ball is in play.

With the way the referee was performing, I think the players should have realised they needed to be more careful. I personally don't think it should have been a goal but reckon the referee was never going to disallow it when you consider he'd denied them what looked to be a clear penalty a few minutes earlier.

No doubt that we lost all composure and organisation after the goal and nobody seemed to have the first clue what they should be doing when the second goal came around. I think we seemed to have Berrett 'marking' their tall and powerful full-back at the corner. Only one result of that mismatch once a good ball was put in.

If he was taking the free kick then it's a goal , if he was knocking it back then it's not . Only Clarke knows

What matters is we didn't deserve anything from that game . We were shocking from start to finish .

People saying if it's a quickly taken free kick then u can't expect opposition to be 10 yards BUT Berrett was booked for obstructing when they had a free kick and tried to take it quickly. I thought at the time fair enough but let's see if u apply that to both sides. You can't say Berrett acquired more of an advantage than their player did. Also Berrett wouldn't have been sent off if he hadn't have received that booking. (stupid foul to give when already booked tho)

Just thought it was very unprofessional by Town for not taking more care and the referee who clearly was not watching.

What is interesting is the blowing the whistle thing as often you get a free kick in that part of the pitch and the ref will blow to stop the game/award the free kick but will not blow to re-start the game.

Then if you get a free kick outside of the box and a wall is set up the ref will blows to tell everyone he is ready and the attacker can tale the kick, you often see kicks re-taken because the ref is not ready, as ever consistently inconsistency refereeing at this level! In fact w could the ref had been "ready" yesterday if he was not looking at the ball.  

All that though is immaterial as the goal stood and actually I also think Pete has called it right.

Only hope EVERYBODY learned a few things from that game and s it happened so early will get it out their systems fast.

Quoted from Astute

One question. What is your GK doing being out that far? Haven't you got an outfield player that can kick the ball?

On yesterdays viewing..... no  :P

I'm certain Clarke was giving it to Mckeown to take. If it was a pass he would have in some way reacted but if you look at him, he has no hesitation in saying what the intercourse is that guy doing. In no way is Mckeown at fault, but it's probably his reaction that convinces the officials.

Officials got it wrong. Either it was a roll back to Macca for him to take the free kick or the Coventry player wasn't ten yards away. Quite simply the goal should have been disallowed and the free kick taken.

Yesterday's incident was a complete one off. Some comments on here are completely out of order.

Clarke has given the ball to another player to take a free kick hundreds of times throughout his career  and watched the same thing happen in thousands of games without incident.

It is a grey area but players always pick the ball up to place it themselves when taking a free kick and players often roll it to the kicker for them to place it.

The ref had a get out clause to save embarrassment.  "I wasn't ready and hadn't signalled for the free kick to be taken". Made us take it again and wait for the referees signal. End of problem.

If Clarke had chipped it up to Macca and he caught it would the ref give a free kick for handball? I don't think so.

What's the bets next game one of our players tries the exact same thing and gets booked for delaying the taking of a free kick.

It was a one off freak that will never get repeated. It had to be us didn't it?

Spot on mimma. Clarke wasn't being stupid at all, everything about his body language indicated he was just rolling it back for macca to take. It was poor sportsmanship from their striker to take the ball like that. However I do agree on the flip side you could class it as 'quick thinking.' It was a 1 in a 100 situation, the majority of strikers wouldn't have thought anything to it.

Quoted from toontown

People saying if it's a quickly taken free kick then u can't expect opposition to be 10 yards BUT Berrett was booked for obstructing when they had a free kick and tried to take it quickly. I thought at the time fair enough but let's see if u apply that to both sides. You can't say Berrett acquired more of an advantage than their player did. Also Berrett wouldn't have been sent off if he hadn't have received that booking. (stupid foul to give when already booked tho)

But Berrett intentionally prevented their player from taking a quick free kick. Their player didn't prevent us from taking a free kick but capitalised on our schoolboy error.

"It was a one off freak that will never get repeated. It had to be us didn't it?"

My words exactly yesterday were why does it always happen to us
I still think the referee got it completely wrong and having seen it on the tv I'm convinced from Clarkes body language he was not taking the free kick but signalling to Macca to take it instead.
Just hope we've learnt our lesson but I won't hold my breath, we saw last year how many goals we gave away with our silly passing about at the back.

Give over the striker did what all good strikers do he took advantage of a stupid mistake.

Clarke for all his experience should have left it for Macca to sort out only one man at fault Clarke.

And regarding quick free-kicks, their only effort in the first half came from a quick free-kick awarded after the ball bounced up and hit Cardwell's hand.

The free-kick was taken about five yards too far forward, catching most of our midfield out of position and the ball was moving but the referee let them get away with that one!

The ball was taken from the right spot, Clarke clearly has a call from McKeown as he raises his hand to him and passes it back to him and it wasn't done as if it was a quickly taken free kick.

Their player clearly wasn't 10 yards away and gained an advantage as the ref was watching as he walked into the Coventry half.

A complete fuckup by all concerned.

I'm not blaming Macca but it was definitely his reaction that convinced the officials to give it. He only has a split second to think about it but if he just stands there with his hands on his hips, it doesn't get given.

What Clarke did, i have seen done countless times before and every now and again, an opposition player will nick the ball and start running with it, usually to be called back. The ref was looking elsewhere and to my mind didn't see how the situation developed. For all he knew, we had taken the free kick and genuinely lost possession. It's unfortunate but it happened and the record books say we lost 0-2.

They weren't brilliant but they were better than us and deservedly won the game. We may have scraped a draw if that goal hadn't have happened but i had the feeling they were going to score at some point anyway and we were not. Something else we are very poor at is coming from behind in games and we very rarely get a charge on to rescue some points.

Exactly, why the intercourse did Macca chase him down

Split second decision he didn't have time to debate it like you have.

It seems to me that some on here are using this incident to have a go at whoever it is they dislike.

Try to look at it as an unfortunate incident that no one is at fault and just put it down to bad luck and move on.

I agree. We will see the same sort of incident multiple times within each game we play, only the strikers don't usually have a punt and see if they can get away with it.

Quoted from immariner

I'm not blaming Macca but it was definitely his reaction that convinced the officials to give it. He only has a split second to think about it but if he just stands there with his hands on his hips, it doesn't get given.

And if Macca had just stood there hands on hips and let the striker run past him and put it in the net AND the ref still awarded it (and based i his performance yesterday go knows what he would have done) we would all be slating Macca for not trying to stop him.

A total intercourse up by us...we gifted them a goal they were threatening to score anyway and from that point we were not in the contest.  A disappointing overall performance and result. However 44 games left and we move on to next week.

I have not seen any highlights to see what the ref was up to. Assuming it was an indirect free kick he should blow his whistle to signal a free kick and raise one arm keeping it raised until the ball has been kicked by the taker and a second player. In other words the kick is not complete until touched by a second player. In this case the forward. Is that when the ref put his arm down to signify this? The opponent must be 10 yards away from the free kick when is is taken. Doubtful in this case if it is being taken from Clarkes position.

Everybody was wrong,

Clarke was wrong to kick it,

The Coventry was wrong in not being 10yards,

Macca was wrong in cha :)sing after him,

The ref was wrong in not disallowing the goal,

AND

We were all wrong in thinking we could change anything.

A win next week and all will be well again. :)

The Ref 100% didn’t see the “free kick” being taken. I was watching him.

If that's the case he should order a retake since he was not ready.

Free kicks should be taken when the referee gives a signal to that effect.

Quoted from grimsby pete

Everybody was wrong,

Clarke was wrong to kick it,

The Coventry was wrong in not being 10yards,

Macca was wrong in cha :)sing after him,

The ref was wrong in not disallowing the goal,

AND

We were all wrong in thinking we could change anything.

A win next week and all will be well again. :)

Agreed Pete

Quoted from MarinerBen

The Ref 100% didn’t see the “free kick” being taken. I was watching him.

So he should have ordered a retake. He consulted his linesman.. why?

He was looking for support and sadly never got it

Not saying we were at our best yesterday and taking nothing away from Coventry

but

I thought we pretty much matched them until "that goal".

After that they had something to hold onto and they seemed to gain in confidence.

Quoted from rancido

But Berrett intentionally prevented their player from taking a quick free kick. Their player didn't prevent us from taking a free kick but capitalised on our schoolboy error.

Exactly. It's an irrelevant comparison.

On holiday so just seen that first goal.
Clarke indicated with his arm to the nearest Coventry player that the ball was going back to the Town keeper to take the kick.
Coventry player should have been sent off for up gentlemanly conduct.
The officials were absent.

Quoted from oldun

So he should have ordered a retake. He consulted his linesman.. why?

According to the commentator the linesman was signalling that the "free kick" was taken from the wrong position.
So add that to the list of "wrongs!"

Not going go debate the rights and wrongs of the goal....

..all it makes me think is - why is it always Town that concede these daft/controversial goals?

Quoted from lukeo

I've only seen it on a replay and for me if I was Macca I wouldn't have made an attempt of getting the ball when their player nipped In. Sounds daft but refs go on body language and Macca clearly felt the ball was live

but if he didn't, and the goal was still given, can you imagine the reaction and hate towards Macca for not trying to save it

Quoted from Tommy

Not going go debate the rights and wrongs of the goal....

..all it makes me think is - why is it always Town that concede these daft/controversial goals?

It is not always Town. You only see the ones that affect us"

Clearly common sense should prevail in such situations but didnt.

The problem is refs are interpreting the rules in there own way.  The refs are not following the rules.  They should always blow when a free kick, penalty, or goal kick is awarded on when to restart play.  Not when a player asks the ref can i take it quickly when no one else knows, thats a huge disadvantage.

On another day a different ref would have pulled it back.

I'd love to know what the referees assessor told the ref after the game.

I think, if the Ref actually sees what happens, then that always helps!  ;)

Quoted from Meza

The problem is refs are interpreting the rules in there own way.  The refs are not following the rules.  They should always blow when a free kick, penalty, or goal kick is awarded on when to restart play.  Not when a player asks the ref can i take it quickly when no one else knows, thats a huge disadvantage.

Is that the law though?

Quoted from Abdul19

Is that the law though?

The law is the ref holds his arm up until the indirect  free kick is correctly played by a another player,

As the player was not 10 yards from the free kick it should have been retaken,

Plus the said  player could be booked,

Its gone now and its no good harping on about it so lets forget it/

Not according to the rules Pete, have seen Sapper Mariners post (No. 4) and read the FA website - what the coventry striker did was clearly within the rules as you don't need to be 10 yards from the ball if ur opponent takes the free kick quickly. IF the ref treats Clarke as taking the free kick himself then the cov striker can intercept the ball regardless of not being 10 yards.

Quoted from toontown

Not according to the rules Pete, have seen Sapper Mariners post (No. 4) and read the FA website - what the coventry striker did was clearly within the rules as you don't need to be 10 yards from the ball if ur opponent takes the free kick quickly. IF the ref treats Clarke as taking the free kick himself then the cov striker can intercept the ball regardless of not being 10 yards.

So why did Berret get booked for intercepting a quick free kick from them ???

Quoted from Civvy at last

So why did Berret get booked for intercepting a quick free kick from them ???

Because the ref noticed that he doesn't offer much when he plays so he was doing us a favour by working towards ensuring he doesn't start the next game for us ;)

Because he deliberately stood about 2 yards away to stop the free kick being taken quickly.

Quoted from Civvy at last

So why did Berret get booked for intercepting a quick free kick from them ???

Quoted from sapper mariner

However, an opponent who deliberately prevents a free kick being taken quickly must be cautioned for delaying the restart of play. from the fa website.

I was drunk of at the time about it, it was a frustrating game were neither team played that well to be honest. The end of the day it's happened it can't be changed now and we move on. Makes me laugh I've seen some Coventry fans say they totally outclassed us but to be fair I thought it was a very scrappy game with not much quality except Jones for them and dembele for us , had 0-0 written all over it before the goal. One thing we do need to change is having 1 striker upfront at home, we are meant to be the team showing we want to win the game and not worrying about there players.

Quoted from toontown

Not according to the rules Pete, have seen Sapper Mariners post (No. 4) and read the FA website - what the coventry striker did was clearly within the rules as you don't need to be 10 yards from the ball if ur opponent takes the free kick quickly. IF the ref treats Clarke as taking the free kick himself then the cov striker can intercept the ball regardless of not being 10 yards.

It was hardly what I'd call a quick free kick though

Nearly everyone bar a couple of Coventry players had gone in to our half  ( expecting the ball to be played long no doubt ) and only after that did Clarke then for whatever reason roll the ball a few feet behind him towards Macca

Given the weight on the "pass" back he surely can't have been thinking this is the free kick in itself...

I could be wrong of course but in his mind I'd guess he was just thinking of rolling it back for Macca to punt upfield

Anyway we conceded the goal rightly or wrongly and nothing is going to change that no matter what  :-/

Has he been asked what he was doing ?

I guess the goal is technically legal, but against the spirit of the game. Just gotta hope what goes around comes around I guess.

Obviously Clarke never thought in a million years McNulty would have done what he did, naive on his part, but he's a model pro and obviously expects the same off others. McNulty has then celebrated like he's just scored in the World Cup final.

Just gotta hope we win them in the away fixture :)

Quoted from sam gy

I guess the goal is technically legal, but against the spirit of the game. Just gotta hope what goes around comes around I guess.

Obviously Clarke never thought in a million years McNulty would have done what he did, naive on his part, but he's a model pro and obviously expects the same off others. McNulty has then celebrated like he's just scored in the World Cup final.

Just gotta hope we win them in the away fixture :)

Very very naive IMHO. I don't believe the goal should have stood. However, it was a c0ck up on our part and if it was the other way round we'd be praising our man for quick thinking.

Think of it this way, if you'd been playing 5-a-side with your mates and one nipped in to 'score' a goal like that, it obviously wouldn't count and you'd tell him not to be such a male masturbator. Just because the Coventry player is a professional and there was a referee, doesn't make it any better.

I'd be pretty embarrassed if we scored a goal like that myself.

Quoted from Maringer

Think of it this way, if you'd been playing 5-a-side with your mates and one nipped in to 'score' a goal like that, it obviously wouldn't count and you'd tell him not to be such a male masturbator. Just because the Coventry player is a professional and there was a referee, doesn't make it any better.

I'd be pretty embarrassed if we scored a goal like that myself.

Me too Maringer

I mean it's just not cricket is it?

What if it was against Gateshead/Lincoln/Cheltenham and Baxter/Rhead/Pell had taken the free kick? ;)

No Baxter would still be 8 yards up in air screaming and appealing for someone to be sent off despite him having committed the foul. The cheating git

[quote=43]Think of it this way, if you'd been playing 5-a-side with your mates and one nipped in to 'score' a goal like that, it obviously wouldn't count and you'd tell him not to be such a male masturbator. Just because the Coventry player is a professional and there was a referee, doesn't make it any better.

I'd be pretty embarrassed if we scored a goal like that myself.[/quote]


Not if it was a goal that secured promotion!

Don't think the ref is going to change his mind on this one.  ::)

Quoted from rancido

Not if it was a goal that secured promotion!

Would put a taint on it. Thing is, as soon as you start praising the professionalism of their player for trying his luck, you're taking a small step towards thinking the way that the likes of Cheltenham play is acceptable.

Agree that it should not hav stood in the spirit of the game. Canceling it was the easy route for the ref, just retake it, game continues. Hard for refs to get sympathy when they complicate the game themselves with no need.
If it stands, as it has, then it means the original kick back to Macca was the free kick (in the refs eyes), this opens up a whole world of possible contentious possibilities, just one would be what if the ball had reached Macca and he picked it up in preparation to take the kick? Handball, booking for Macca and a free kick for the opposition?
These decisions for me are the main cause of friction between refs and fans, and even players/management. Common sense never seems to prevail.

Good post mate.

According to Slade in his interview on RH, the ref's assessor said the goal should not have stood and the ref has been reported for it.

It may have already been mentioned... apologies if so... but I was informed last night the the Coventry game ref has been taken off his game for this weekend.... how true it us I don't know... but whatever.. it won't change the result... 😠

Quoted from gary_elton

It may have already been mentioned... apologies if so... but I was informed last night the the Coventry game ref has been taken off his game for this weekend.... how true it us I don't know... but whatever.. it won't change the result... 😠

He was off his game last week but still managed to get out and officiate.... though I use that term loosely!