Watford v Reading – The Phantom Goal
September 21st, 2008 . posted by admin
The “phantom goal” incident occurred during a Championship match between Watford and Reading when assistant referee Nigel Bannister farcically flagged for a goal, despite the ball clearly bouncing over the byline, missing the post by at least 4 feet.
The 25-year-old referee Stuart Attwell decided to let Reading’s opening “goal” stand, and the match eventually ended in a 2-2 draw.
The Football League confirmed the decision to award the goal was final.
To add insult to injury for Watford, it went down as an own goal by Eustace.
* Is this a good case for reopening the debate on the use of replay technology? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments!
Do you see the ball crossing the line anywhere? Blame it on human error, or the need for TV replays.
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Scozzie | September 23rd, 2008 @ 4:47 am | | |
Surely the fact a Reading player is trying to kick the ball back into the field of play is a enough to suggest its not going into the goal.
wam | September 23rd, 2008 @ 6:55 am | | |
the linesman thought that when the reading player hit the bar, it hit the underside of it, so he gave it as a goal.
Appu | September 23rd, 2008 @ 7:23 am | | |
:o in my opinion there should be two more referees on the two side of the field near the goal.there job would be to inspect the goals n the fouls inside the penalty box.is’nt my idea nice?
tarik | September 23rd, 2008 @ 7:29 am | | |
or a bloody sensor!?!?!?!?!
Neil | September 23rd, 2008 @ 9:08 am | | |
If the Reading players had any sense of sportsmanship they should have let Watford score straight away. That would have well wound the ref up as well!!!:d
ray | September 23rd, 2008 @ 10:47 am | | |
[quote comment="23159"]the linesman thought that when the reading player hit the bar, it hit the underside of it, so he gave it as a goal.[/quote]
The ball hitting the underside of the crossbar does not warrant a goal. The entirety of the ball must pass the entirety of the line. Just because it hits the underside, it does not mean this happened. No where in the rules does it say a ball hitting the underside of the crossbar is a goal. If it were to bounce off and then cross the goal line, then it would be a goal.
cloverfield | September 23rd, 2008 @ 12:02 pm | | |
just put a fu**in chip in the ball and things like that will never ever happen again.
to put a linesman behind the goal is a bad idea either, when he makes one mistake we got a new discussion…
It cannot be that hard to put a chip in a ball…can it?
damn its always the same…shame on FIFA, the slowest enterprise in the world
Philip | September 23rd, 2008 @ 3:55 pm | | |
nice!
but some of the goal should be played again in slowmotien.
soccerlike | September 23rd, 2008 @ 4:48 pm | | |
What a controversial goal, lucky there is no serous fight happen… There shouldn’t be another case like this happen again, or else player will not believe the credibility of referee anymore.. :)>-
sky | September 23rd, 2008 @ 7:17 pm | | |
i would give the linesman a telescope as a christmas present :d/:d/:d/
Gladback | September 23rd, 2008 @ 8:20 pm | | |
I think video technology should be brought into the picture. Each team will get 2 video replay chances per match! (1 each half) this will solve all the problems! guaranteed!
Ed | September 23rd, 2008 @ 11:31 pm | | |
The Assistant Referee is a total disgrace!
He could have at least thought why on earth would a Reading player want to hook the ball back into play if the ball had crossed the goal line?
i know that Referees are supposed to make spilt-second decisions and to use some common sense more often than not but the decision by the Assistant Referee beggars belief and was lacking in even the dimmest of common sense. it was a really horrendous decision as well as a shocking one. even the Reading players were dumbfounded by it.
The said Assistant Referee should retire!!!
Fenom | September 24th, 2008 @ 1:30 am | | |
this isn’t a good case of using video replay cause it’s so obviously not a goal that the linesman and referee shoulda just been fired on the spot, this play doesn’t need a replay
Ghost of a goal « Breezeblog | September 25th, 2008 @ 12:37 pm | | |
[...] info By Chris Gibbons Categories: football If you haven’t seen this cock-up from Watford v Reading on the weekend, this is surely one of the most bizarre goals ever “scored”. It goes [...]